(Ecofin Agency) - Algerian pharmaceutical laboratory Huppharma entered into partnership with Saudi counterpart Jamjoom Pharma to open an ophthalmology drug factory in Constantine (400 km East of Algiers).

The industrial unit will have a production capacity of 250 million eye-drops bottles per year, according to APS.

Established under the 51-49% rule regulating foreign investment in Algeria, the Saudi-Algerian firm will need an initial investment of $130 million.

The partnership agreement was signed between the two companies on Feb 9, 2017, by Huppharma’s CEO, Toufik Bekhadj Mostefa and Jamjoom Pharma’s representative, Mahmoud Youcef Jamjoom, in the presence of the minister of health, population and hospital reform, Abdelmalek Boudiaf and the Saudi Arabia ambassador to Algeria, Sami Ben Abdellah Sallah.

The current project aims to make 15 types of ophtalmic of Jamjoom Pharma’s products which are presently imported, revealed Belhadj Mostefa who highlighted that the upcoming factory will produce in a second stage other pharmaceutical products. This, according to him, “falls in line with the government strategy to decrease drug imports and reinforce the local pharmaceutical industry”.