Pharmazoomer #3 - September/October 2026

A GLP-1 race is opening up across the region. Hikma’s Glucentra® launch (first generic semaglutide in Saudi Arabia) and Eva Pharma’s semaglutide tie-up with CCL Pharmaceuticals for Central/Southeast Asia show originator GLP-1 drugs facing generic and licensed competition in emerging markets well ahead of full patent expiry elsewhere — a trend worth flagging given the affordability and access angle. Saudi Arabia is converting its Vision 2030 ambitions into concrete biologics/biosimilar deals, almost entirely channeled through one event. Nearly every Saudi item (Vertex–MNGHA gene therapy, Shilpa–SPIMACO Bio PD-1 biosimilar, MS Pharma–LCGPA localization, and indirectly the broader local-content push) was announced at or around the Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit, confirming RGMBS as the country’s chosen stage for biotech/biosimilar policy announcements rather than isolated corporate news. Local/regional licensing-in of complex biologics is the dominant corporate behavior, not in-house R&D. Avalon Pharma (BAT2406/Dupixent biosimilar, oligonucleotide MoU), Jamjoom Pharma (Nordic Pharma’s Lacrifill), Julphar (first UAE biosimilar darbepoetin alfa) and SPIMACO all follow the same playbook: license a complex/biologic product from a foreign originator or biosimilar specialist and commercialize it regionally, rather than developing novel molecules themselves. Egypt is the most active single regulatory environment in this batch, and it’s moving on multiple fronts at once: a drug-pricing overhaul (FX/inflation-indexed repricing), an oncology-localization push (Eva Pharma’s nine therapies), a new EDA–NMPA (China) cooperation channel, and parallel soft-power moves (African health diplomacy, a World Bank FDI strategy). Taken together, Egypt reads as a regulator trying to simultaneously control costs, build local manufacturing capacity, and position itself as a regional/African hub. Pandemic-preparedness and vaccine self-sufficiency themes recur outside Egypt too: Nigeria’s Fidson joining the Medicines Patent Pool sublicensing network for a Roche flu antiviral, Kenya’s 50%-local-production manufacturing strategy announced at AfriSummit, and PharmaKina’s Africa CDC prequalification all point to the same continental push — reducing import dependence — that we’ve tracked in your broader emerging-markets monitoring. Pediatric/rare-disease access is a smaller but notable thread: Sidra Medicine’s two new neuroblastoma therapies in Qatar and Novartis’s Kisqali adjuvant indication approval in Egypt both expand access to serious-disease treatments for patients who previously had fewer options in-region.