Saudi Investment Opportunities in Vaccines, Vital Medicines Worth $3.4 Bn

Saudi Arabia announced substantial investment opportunities in vaccines and medicines worth $3.4 billion, aiming to realize the Kingdom's goals of achieving pharmaceutical and health security and making Saudi Arabia an important center for this promising industry.

Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar al-Khorayef explained that the ministry is keen to create an attractive investment environment in the country.

Khorayef was speaking at the Saudi British Business Council workshop in London, themed "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: The Next Global Station for Mining," aimed at introducing investment opportunities in the mining sector.

Mining is the third pillar of the Saudi industrial growth plan, contributing to the gross domestic product of an estimated $64 billion by 2030.

The Minister explained that the ministry is working to provide an attractive investment environment, citing several vital initiatives for investors, including new regulations, which provide transparent and fair legal support for the investor to achieve maximum benefits from investing in mineral resources in the Kingdom.

Vast Opportunities

Chairman of the Saudi-British Business Council Sherard Cowper-Coles underlined that the next generation of the Kingdom's youth owes it to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the initiatives he launched, which led to a modern and open economy.

Cowper-Coles called on investors to visit the Kingdom, explore the environmental and cultural diversity and the available investment opportunities, visit the city of NEOM, and communicate with major Saudi national companies such as Aramco.

The Director of the Ministry's Office in London, Abdulaziz al-Ghifaili, reiterated that the Kingdom welcomes investors in all promising sectors, including the mining sector. He highlighted the incentives available to foreign investors, including the Invest in Saudi platform, which facilitates the investor's journey.

UK Visit

Saudi Arabia seeks to promote its vast capabilities of mineral resources and the industrial sector.

Khorayef met with several British investors to emphasize the importance of strengthening communication with the Kingdom to identify qualitative opportunities in the industrial and mining sectors and renewed his invitation to Riyadh's annual Future Minerals Forum.

The Minister met with the CEO of Arrival Corporation, Denis Lvovich Sverdlov, during which the two sides reviewed the organizational maturity in the industrial sector in the Kingdom, where the number of factories in the Kingdom exceeds 10,000 factories, with a total investment volume in the industrial sector of nearly $400 billion.

Khorayef also met with the Regional Director for the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia for Rolls-Royce, Patrick Régis, and the CEO of Reckitt, Laxman Narasimhan.

He also discussed with the CEO of Fitch Learning, Paul Taylor, al-Khorayef, the investment opportunities available in the industrial sector, with a volume of new investments over the past year of more than $20 billion.

He concluded his tour on the second day with a meeting with the CEO of INEOS, Hans Casier, and the CEO of Lucy Electric, John Griffiths.

The Saudi Minister invited companies in the United Kingdom to attend the Forum, stressing the Kingdom's keenness and great interest in promoting and attracting investments as it aims to exploit mineral wealth estimated at $1.3 trillion.

London Metal Exchange

Khorayef visited the London Metal Exchange during his tour in the UK with several heads of sectors of the industry and mining.

During the visit, Khorayef listened to an introduction about the stock exchange and its latest developments, the mechanism of buying and trading in the stock exchange, the critical metal storage sites, and the most prominent solutions applied to ensure a sustainable future.

Investing in vaccines

Saudi Arabia announced substantial investment opportunities in the manufacture of vaccines and vital medicines, with a value of 3.4 billion dollars, to achieve the country's goals of attaining pharmaceutical health security and making the Kingdom an important center for these promising industries.

The Minister stressed that the targeted pharmaceutical sectors, whose value exceeds $5 billion, will be implemented in several stages, starting with vaccines and vital medicines, as the first phase will focus on localizing vaccines, plasma, and insulin technologies.

Technology transfer

The Minister stressed the importance of transferring their full technologies to contribute mainly to building the Kingdom's capabilities in these sectors and achieving health and pharmaceutical security while reducing the high cost on the state budget.

Currently, the state imports 100 percent of vaccines and vital pharmaceutical products, while the essential medicines sector enjoys the fastest growth rate in the market among all pharmaceutical sectors, with an annual rate of 17 percent.

He said that the Manufacturing Vaccines and Vital Medicines Committee would focus in the first phase on localizing basic children's vaccines and building the necessary self-capacities and manufacturing platforms to combat future pandemics.

It will be followed by insulin production to treat diabetes patients and then support plasma collection centers with a world-class factory to achieve self-sufficiency in plasma derivatives.

Immunotherapy

The Minister explained that the second phase would focus on localizing immunological and cancer treatments technologies, where the size of this vital sector is estimated at more than $2 billion annually, of which insulin represents approximately $340 million.

The Minister explained that the Manufacturing Vaccines and Vital Medicines Committee aims to achieve positive results by identifying the best technologies in the field of vaccines and vital medicines, in which the Kingdom must invest to transfer and localize knowledge.

It seeks to build local industrial platforms with international specifications to enable the Kingdom to occupy its natural place as an industrial power and a logistical platform for vaccines and vital medicines in the Middle East and the Muslim countries.

The committee is working on organizing and developing vital medicines, setting a strategy for regulating the vaccines and essential medicines industry, related programs, and plans, supervising their implementation, setting rules and standards for building factories for vaccines and vital medicines, and taking all necessary procedures concerning the construction of those factories.

As Trump 2.0 becomes a reality, Europe is poised to enter a new geopolitical and trade quagmire with its biggest trading partner.

Donald Trump's victory may harm Europe's economy as proposed 10% US tariffs risk hitting European exports such as cars and chemicals, eroding Europe's GDP by up to 1.5% or about €260 billion.

Analysts warn of European Central Bank (ECB) rate cuts, euro weakness, and a recession risk.

According to several economic analyses, there is broad agreement that Trump's proposed 10% universal tariff on all US imports may significantly disrupt European growth, intensify monetary policy divergence, and strain key trade-dependent sectors such as autos and chemicals.

The long-term effects on Europe's economic resilience could prove even more significant if tariffs lead to protracted trade conflicts, prompting the European Central Bank (ECB) to respond with aggressive rate cuts to cushion the impact, according to Euronews.

Trump's proposed across-the-board tariff on imports, including those from Europe, could profoundly impact sectors such as cars and chemicals, which rely heavily on US exports.

Data from the European Commission shows that the European Union exported €502.3 billion in goods to the US in 2023, making up a fifth of all non-European Union exports.

European exports to the US are led by machinery and vehicles (€207.6 billion), chemicals (€137.4 billion), and other manufactured goods (€103.7 billion), which together comprise nearly 90% of the bloc's transatlantic exports.

ABN Amro analysts, including head of macro research Bill Diviney, warn that tariffs “would cause a collapse in exports to the US,” with trade-oriented economies such as Germany and the Netherlands likely to be hardest hit.

According to the Dutch bank, Trump's tariffs would shave approximately 1.5 percentage points off European growth, translating to a potential €260 bn economic loss based on Europe's estimated 2024 GDP of €17.4 tn.

Should Europe's growth falter under Trump's tariffs, the European Central Bank (ECB) may be compelled to respond aggressively, slashing rates to near zero by 2025.

In contrast, the US Federal Reserve may continue raising rates, leading to “one of the biggest and most sustained monetary policy divergences” between the ECB and the Fed since the euro's inception in 1999.

Dirk Schumacher, head of European macro research at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking Germany, suggests that a 10% tariff increase could reduce GDP by approximately 0.5% in Germany, 0.3% in France, 0.4% in Italy, and 0.2% in Spain.

Schumacher warns that “the euro area could slide into recession in response to higher tariffs.”

According to Goldman Sachs' economists James Moberly and Sven Jari Stehn, the broad tariff would likely erode eurozone GDP by approximately 1%.

Goldman Sachs analysts project that a 1% GDP loss translates into a hit to earnings per share (EPS) for European firms by 6-7 percentage points, which would be sufficient to erase expected EPS growth for 2025.

Saudi Investment Opportunities in Vaccines, Vital Medicines Worth $3.4 Bn