Global alliance backs $93m insulin plant in Bahrain

Gulf Biotech has teamed up with Merck, Helm and Linde to build a $93m (€68m) insulin facility in Bahrain.

The 16,000m2 site in the Salman Industrial City is set to commence operations by mid-2015 with capacity of 42 million units, according to a report in the built in Bahrain publication Gulf Daily News.

The project is being led by Gulf Biotech - whose shareholders include Saudi-owned Al Roaya Gulf Group Holdings - but is backed by an alliance involving the multinational firms Merck & Co., Helm and Linde.

Dr. Thomas Hagn, a spokesperson from the Germany-headquartered engineering firm Linde, confirmed its part in the project to in-Pharmatechnologist.com.

“Our subsidiary Linde Engineering Dresden (LED) has been awarded this contract,” he told us. However as the project is still in its early phases LED has “an initial contract only for basic engineering of the plant (formulation of compounds and filling).”