Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (Julphar), which is based in Ras Al Khaimah, has said it will open its sixth factory in October. It will be the company's fourth plant in the emirate, the other two being in Ecuador and Germany, a Gulf News report said.

The Julphar 6 plant will produce 90 million bottles of syrup annually and be highly automated with only 35 employees, managing director Abdul Razaq Al Yousef said.

The company has recently faced problems registering its products in the UAE and the other GCC states. Julphar is negotiating with the Ministry of Health to reach an understanding under which it will be allowed to register some products, he added.

"Preparing a product and registering it at the ministry will take not less than 18 months." The Ministry of Health has banned the registration of any pharmaceutical that is intended to replace an international product with patent protection, Al Yousef was quoted as saying.

"Despite everything, Julphar has been able to achieve a Dh232.1 million (about $63 million) turnover in 2000 and had Dh36 million net profit, comprising 15.51 per cent of the company's total sales." The company recorded profits of Dh45 million in 1999. The decline came from the expenses Julphar incurred in expanding into new markets such as the US, the report said. It will distribute Dh21 million, comprising 7 per cent of total capital, as dividend.

Julphar recently opened an office in Chicago. Registration and licenses for 32 products that did not need medical prescriptions to be sold in the US, have been received, the report said.

Julphar has signed a $2.7 million deal with a pharmaceutical company to distribute those 32 products. There was another contract to produce Dh7 million worth of antibiotics in injections to be sold in the US. In the first quarter of this year sales were encouraging. Sales to the UAE private sector increased 35 per cent, those to the public sector rose 25 per cent, it said.