French medicine factory in Tunis

The French group Synthelabo for medicine announced its intention to establish a factory in Tunis soon, to produce different kinds of its main medicines.

Hatem Heshisha, the manager of the group's branch in Tunis, has estimated the cost of establishing the factory at nearly $4 million.

He also said that construction is to start this week, expecting that the factory will be ready at the end of 2000.

The French group has old relations with its Tunisian counterpart, where the new factory is considered to be the group's 20th, and the number of pharmaceutical factories in Tunis amounts to 19, with exports of $100 million.

Statistics have estimated the volume of the local consumption of medicines at nearly $200 million, 16% of the total of national consumption, while estimating individual consumption at nearly $50 annually.