The Journey since the early 1960’s:
Pharmacare was established to manufacture and distribute pharmaceuticals by a group of Palestinian entrepreneurs led by the late Mr. Subhi Khoury, a pioneer pharmacist who started the first pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Jordan in 1962. The company is located in a small environment-friendly industrial zone in Beitunia, near Ramallah, 15 km north of Jerusalem.
The company was established in 1985 and was incorporated as a public shareholding firm in 1986. It adopted the motto: “Expression of Trust” . The first product to mark the onset of a series of subsequent successes, currently corresponding to over seventy distinct products, was Amoxicare . It was an instant success because of its tremendously agreeable taste to children and its highly appealing price, thus promoting the new concept “Price Matters”.
A leader in so many ways, Pharmacare headed a principal role in introducing the revolutionary campaign of computational and IT technologies into the country and as an integrated component of its facilities towards the late eighties. Pharmacare’s achievements in this field included the first Computer Department to be established as a separate entity in Palestinian Industry, the first network of communicating PC’s in Palestine and coding, setting up & operating a fully integrated software package covering the various aspects of the company’s operations: supply chain, QC, production, QA, sales and marketing.
“Pharmacare is in the forefront in GMP implementation”. In 1990, the retired US FDA inspector, Mr. David Briant, audited operations and reported that: “This company will be allowed to continue operations in the United States if that where it was located.’’
To ensure growth beyond the local economic constraints of a relatively small market place and in confidence of the ability to transfer, scale and upgrade technical and managerial performance to bigger markets, management has been looking for the right opportunity to grow its business to the next level. The year 1993 marked the first shipments to Russia and Belarus, triumphantly rendering Pharmacare as the first Palestinian pharmaceutical company to export internationally.
Few years later, in 1997, Pharmacare signed a licensing agreement with Grunenthal GmbH of Aachen, Germany, followed by a joint venture agreement with the Wirtz family, owners of Grunenthal in 1999. This set of agreements marked the first and only of a kind on the local scale. As part of those agreements, the Germans initially acquired 22% of the Pharmacare shares. Today their share is 26%, thus rendering the former a solid long-term partner in the Pharmacare business.
The commencement of the millennium inaugurated Pharmacare’s state of the art production facility, rendering it GMP-compliant with fully equipped QC and R&D labs. The greatest success since inception was celebrated on the facility in Palestine being awarded the prestigious EU c-GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certificate in January 2008 after completing intensive and rigorous inspections. Certified as being GMP compliant by the German Health Authority gave Pharmacare’s products access to German and other EU markets; this certificate was renewed for three more years in January 2011 and 2014 by the same authority; and in 2016 by the Portuguese authority. This proved Pharmacare to be able to adhere to the continuously changing c-GMP guidelines, particularly implementing the zoning system, which requires complete separation and independent access into production, packaging, labs and stores. Pharmacare also received ISO 9001 and ISO 140001 certifications within few years in series. This drastic expansion of Pharmacare’s operations by means of obtaining certification, introducing new therapeutic lines, diversifying current operations and enhancing sales was the turning point towards a promising new era.
Further to an official European GMP certification, Pharmacare celebrated the first official shipment of its medicines to the European Union, in accordance to a plan with Grunenthal, in 2008. An EU-GMP certificate paved the road towards mass exports of over 21% of PCP’s production to the European market beginning 2010.
The Big Success was shortly followed by the establishment and launching of Pharmacare Premium in Malta, an elite subsidiary of Pharmacare specialising in an Oncology (Anti-Cancer) product line, in addition to the packaging, testing and batch release of PCP products for distribution in EU markets. Pharmacare Premium acquired the EU-GMP approval in 2011 and has been a certified facility to start operating as a batch release site ever since.
Subsequent success stories by Pharmacare comprised the acquisition of the Brazilian GMP Certificate through the ANVISA authorities, thus permitting the exporting of products to several countries in South America and the WHO and the USP/PIC-s audits. Several key investments and partnerships followed; these included the establishment of Pharmacare Global UK , the acquisition of 10% of IPI - Iraqi Pharmaceutical Industry , Baghdad, Iraq; and the establishment of Hikma-Shifa a joint venture with the multinational Hikma Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, several licencing and manufacturing under licence agreements were made with key partners from Greece, Austria , and Poland.
While expanding internationally, Pharmacare continues to invest and upgrade its local facilities. In 2014, a new major expansion was initiated following approval of a long-term loan by the French Government. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held in September 2015 in the presence of the then French Minister of Economy and current President, Mr. Emanuel Macron. stage 1 of the new major expansion of Pharmacare’s facilities was officially inaugurated in September 2017 in the presence of the French Minister of Economy Mr. Bruno Le Maire. This expansion allows Pharmacare to introduce new production lines and Pharmaceutical forms and preparations.