Mohsin Haider Darwish, one of the largest and pioneering business houses in the Sultanate of Oman, has signed an agreement with Ali Moosa Al Bulushi, National Bank of Oman (NBO), and SOHAR Freezone for the establishment of a first-of-its-kind pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – Penicillin General Integrated Industrial Company (Pen-G).

Under the agreement, Pen-G will be jointly owned by MHD and Ali Moosa Al Bulushi and will establish a state of the art fermentation plant for the manufacture of key pharmaceutical start-up material at the Sohar Freezone. NBO will be participating as the primary bank through which the project is being financed, a press release said.

The signing ceremony took place on April 6, at the Pen-G head office in Ghala. Present at the signing ceremony were Ali Moosa al Bulushi, Mohammed Abdullah al Kharusi, CEO, MHD, Abdullah Zahran al Hinai, CEO, National Bank of Oman, and Omar bin Mahmood al Mahrizi, CEO of Sohar Freezone and deputy CEO of Sohar Port.

Commenting on the project, Mohammed al Kharusi said, “As of 2020, the global pharmaceutical industry generated revenues of US$1.27tn, representing significant growth over the past two decades. Our objective with Pen-G is two-fold. First, we would like to officially put Oman on the world map for raw materials for start-up medicine and enter this lucrative industry, and secondly, we would like to further our goal of establishing ourselves as a key contributor to Oman Vision 2040 and, by extension, to the government’s national diversification efforts.

“Furthermore, our location at the Sohar Freezone, right next to the largest industrial port in the country, provides us with ready access to global trade routes between Asia and Europe for both acquisition of raw materials as well as export of our product.”

The Pen-G fermentation plant will be the first of its kind in the region and has been initially designed to have two blocks for the manufacture of Penicillin-G and 6-APA (Amino Penicillanic Acid) respectively. These are key start-up materials for the most widely used group of antibiotics, penicillin, and cephalosporins. There are also plans to eventually add a further block for the manufacture of key start-up materials for Erythromycin. The plant has also been designed from the ground up to comply wholly with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) regulations, ensuring all products manufactured are to global standards.

The project was the brainchild of Ali Moosa al Bulushi, a proven, dynamic, multi-disciplined project director and programme manager. He has been a banker for close to two decades before he plunged into the pharmaceutical business, implementing, and providing complete project life-cycle management services for various pharma projects in India and Oman.

Commenting on the Pen-G project, Bulushi said, “This project is a core part of my constantly evolving dream to build value in Oman in the Pharma sector. Penicillin G represents value addition at the raw material stage of antibiotic medicine manufacturing – an area currently dominated by China. Once completely operational, this plant will cater to the demand for Penicillin GK raw material amounting to nearly 10% of the world’s consumption.”

Mahrizi added, “The growth of the Sohar pharma cluster is an important step forward in the development of the Port and Freezone with far-reaching benefits to the local community, both in terms of investment and access to the finished product. This pharma project, the second project after our animal vaccination facility, will add significant value to all three of our objectives. We are confident that the plant operated by Penicillin General Integrated Industrial Company will provide the impetus for further investment in the pharmaceutical industry and the potential for Sohar to become the main hub for the industry in the region.”