Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Tabuk Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company, a leading Saudi pharmaceuticals company, has signed an agreement with Moderna Inc, a US-based biotechnology company, to commercialize the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and future variant-specific booster candidates in Saudi Arabia.

The announcement of the agreement was made by the US company in a tweet on Friday, saying: “This morning we announced an agreement with @TabukPharma to commercialize the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and future variant-specific booster candidates in Saudi Arabia.”

Under the terms of this agreement, Tabuk Pharmaceuticals, a fully owned subsidiary of Astra Industrial Group, will hold the marketing authorization for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia. Beyond the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and Moderna’s updated variant booster candidates, the agreement also gives Tabuk the possibility to discuss opportunities to distribute other Moderna mRNA products if authorized in the future.

Commenting on the agreement, Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna said: “We appreciate the collaboration of Tabuk Pharmaceuticals in this new partnership in Saudi Arabia. “It is thanks to partnerships such as these that we are able to expand access to our vaccine globally, and we hope it will support the availability of our COVID-19 vaccine for the benefit of the people of Saudi Arabia.”

“We are pleased to have secured a new agreement to supply our COVID-19 vaccine and our updated variant booster vaccine candidate, if authorized, to Saudi Arabia for 2021 and 2022.”

“We welcome the opportunity to work with Tabuk Pharmaceuticals to bring the Moderna COVID-19 and potentially other Moderna mRNA products to Saudi Arabia in the future,” said Corinne Le Goff, chief commercial officer of Moderna. “Together with our partners, we remain committed to delivering our vaccine to more populations around the world.”

“As part of our role and mission in Tabuk to deliver unique health solutions and preserve lives for the people of Saudi Arabia and countries we operate in especially during the current pandemic, our partnership with Moderna comes in as an evident choice to further support our mission in line with Saudi vision 2030 regarding biotechnology in association with such a distinguished & renowned company as Moderna,” said Mohammed Alhagbani Astra Industrial Group President.

“We are proud and excited at Tabuk to be partnering with Moderna to commercialize crucial vaccines to Saudi Arabia building on our strategy to expand our specialty and innovative business and reinforces our leading position in the region. Our aspiration is to be the partner of choice to Moderna in the region and consider further strategic collaboration including local manufacturing in Saudi,” said Wisam Alkhatib, vice president of strategy and business development of Tabuk Pharmaceuticals.