The development of pharmaceutical industry in Syria in 1998
Syria, Economics, 1/21/1999

In the Arab states where industrial development is low and narrowly focused on few industries (such as oil), and where the trade imbalance is chronically negative, one promising area that recalls past Arab excellence that was abandoned to the West is medicines and pharmaceutical products.

Syria and Egypt are two promising examples where this industry has great potential not only for development to meet internal needs, but also as an area where exports can be developed due to competitive pricing advantages.

In a statement to ArabicNews.com on the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Syria during 1998, as six medicinal factories in Syria obtained the (International Standardization Organization ) ISO 9002 certificate, Syrian Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Kawkab al-Dayah said 1998 was very remarkable concerning the national pharmaceutical industry.

She said that six medicinal factories were granted ISO 9002 certificates, noting that several others will earn this certificate during 1999.

ISO certificates are usually granted following deepened studies of the various stages the pharmaceutical product undergoes from the early steps of processing when the raw materials arrive in the factory until the finished product is put into consumption after being manufactured.

Dr. al-Dayah added that on the grounds of the ministry's desire to ensure quality and production control, a special department was newly established at the Ministry of Health to monitor quality control. The department started to grant ISO certificates.

The Syrian deputy health minister also indicated great progress in ways of monitoring pharmaceutical products in central laboratories. She said new equipment has been provided and the number of pharmacists and technicians concerned has been on the increase. She commented that as a result the numbers of analyses and tests carried out in these laboratories exceeded 1,000 in 1998.

Deputy Minister al-Deyah said the process of medicine quality control monitoring was supported in all the country's 14 provinces, thereby the number of inspection tours to medicinal factories increased to more than 1,000 visits during 1998. She added that systems of storage and cooling have been development in medicine warehouses and pharmacies. She noted that in this area a symposium was held in Damascus in July 1998 in which experts from the World Health Organization, university teaching staff and local experts took part and explained true storage systems.

Dr. al-Deyah said that as of the beginning of 1998, the ministry started, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), to manufacture and monitor herbal medicines. She explained: "We have classified three categories of medical herbs. The first which is available in Syria, or imported from abroad. The second which grow naturally in Syria or are planted, and the third category which includes 25 herbal plants from which we start processing herbal medicines."

Dr. al-Dayah said that three "organizational decisions" were issued to determine conditions for using and manufacturing herbal pharmaceutical products and conditions provided for medicine factories for the manufacture of herbal medicines.

The Syrian deputy health minister concluded by saying, "We, in the meantime, complete and study what has been achieved during 1998 concerning the national medicinal industry which covered in 1998 more than 85% of Syria's needs of medicines."

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