Julphar is on a plant network-expansion programme with the announcement that the seventh main plant of the group is to be built in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf's biggest market. The company is also contemplating installing production facilities in Iran and Egypt.

With the recent addition of Julphar - 6, the company has raised its profile as one of the premier pharmaceutical manufacturers of the Middle East. Julphar's momentum in establishing production centres signals it will develop into a pharmaceutical organisation of truly serious proportions, even by Western standards.

Julphar - 6, at Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, is capable of producing 94 million bottles of syrups, suspensions and oral drops annually. The manufacturing equipment was constructed, installed and commissioned by Diessel of Germany - a leading supplier of soft manufacturing facilities. The high level of automation introduced at the plant ensures that only 43 personnel are required to maintain production processes and 35 Emirate nationals are in the workforce. The company has four plants in Ras Al Khaimah and one each in Ecuador (South America) and Germany.

In addition to the six main manufacturing plants, the company has several wholly owned affiliates providing support services. These include a UAE-wide infrastructure of distribution and warehousing, pharmacy management, state-of-the-art printing and packaging facilities, the manufacture of plastic dosing cups and aluminium pilfer-proof caps.

Julphar has also been in the news for advocating a change in UAE government rules to bring prices down for the common man. It submitted a recommendation to the UAE Health Ministry for a reduction in the 70 per cent export price increment given to foreign pharmaceutical agents and pharmacists.

"The UAE should follow Saudi Arabia which gives a maximum 34 per cent profit margin to agents and pharmacists," said managing director Abdul Razzzaq Al Yousef.

"Under any kind of profit margin given to the foreign agents, the national pharmaceutical companies price their products 15-20 per cent lower, and that was the UAE's policy in pricing medicines," he said. Al Yousef said that was the reason why Julphar sold its products in Saudi Arabia, for instance, at lower prices than in the UAE. The UAE is the second-biggest GCC pharmaceutical market with a 15 per cent share, while Saudi Arabia dominates with 60-65 per cent. Julphar exports 94 per cent of its products to more than 40 countries.