Healthcare fund Akkad Holdings, based in the US, is to invest $200 million to build an intravenous fluid factory in Saudi Arabia.
The facility will be based in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) in Mecca province.
“We’re going to break ground hopefully in the next six months,” Dr Steven Shaya, managing director of the fund, told AGBI at the Arab Health exhibition in Dubai.
The factory is part of a wider plan by Akkad Holdings to invest $2.5 billion globally over the next five years in “a variety of different healthcare projects”.
Dr Shaya said he expected the respective food and drug administration approvals from the US and Saudi Arabia to be complete within 18 months.
“Our vision is to set up a whole life sciences vertical (in Saudi Arabia) starting with the manufacturing of IV fluids,” he said.
Intravenous fluids are specially formulated liquids that are injected into a vein to prevent or treat dehydration.
The market for such medication is estimated at $14 billion and is expected to reach over $18 billion by 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence.
The investment will be made through Shamek IV Solutions, a company which has operations in the US, with licenses being finalised to start up in Saudi Arabia. Dr Shaya is founder and chairman of the board of Shamek IV Solutions.
He said the plans were to manufacture in Saudi Arabia and sell to the US government “as our primary customer”.
“We’re going to change the paradigm from Saudi buying everything to actually making things in Saudi and selling them around the world,” said Dr Shaya, whose family owns J&B Medical, a global health services provider, which has 18 different business enterprises and is present in 28 countries.
The sector has been hit by chronic shortages in supply. A production site in North Carolina run by Baxter International, one of the top manufacturers of IV fluids worldwide, was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene in September last year. It prompted a shortage of IV fluids, with hospitals forced to ration supplies and surgeries cancelled.
“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity to move the epicentre of medical manufacturing from Asia into the Middle East,” said Dr Shaya.
Saudi Arabia’s economic reform plans allocated SAR214 billion ($57 billion) to health and social development in 2024 and spending is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 5 percent up to 2027.
In November last year Saudi Arabia officially launched the Life Ventures Capital Fund with a target capital of SAR188 million (around $50 million) to support startups and leading projects in the life sciences sector.
The health sector is proving big business in Saudi Arabia, boasting two of the biggest company listings in the country in 2024: Almoosa Health Company and Dr Soliman Abdulkader Fakeeh Hospital Co.
“I don’t believe any American has taken a company public in Saudi. If not, we will definitely be the first,” said Dr Shaya.
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