Life sciences warehousing in Saudi Arabia

Life sciences warehousing is a complex aspect of logistics. It requires temperature-controlled facilities, cautious handling of cargo and inventory, supply chain visibility, and careful adherence to legislation and regulations. And in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the nation’s Vision 2030 road map to the future has created a fast-growing market for life sciences warehousing.

Despite the disruptions the COVID-19 pandemic brought to supply chains and logistics professionals, Saudi Arabia ranked sixth overall in Agility’s Emerging Markets Logistics Index for 2021. The nation ranks second in the Persian Gulf and is in the top three overall in terms of business fundamentals. As the logistics industry continues to recover from the economic downturn triggered by COVID-19, the opportunities are ripe for life sciences warehousing in Saudi Arabia.

By offering a full spectrum of life sciences warehousing, Agility Logistics Parks in Saudi Arabia was able to meet market demands for logistics solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Going forward, Agility will continue to help small-to-medium enterprises and life sciences companies meet their international logistics, life sciences, and biopharma warehousing needs in Saudi Arabia.

Realizing Vision 2030

Launched five years ago, Vision 2030 is a collection of goals and programs that aims to turn the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into an investment powerhouse in the Middle East and global hub. Two particular programs relate to life sciences warehousing in the country: the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program and the Health Sector Transformation Program.

The National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, which launched in 2019, aims to maximize the sectors of energy, mining, industry, and logistics to grow and diversify the kingdom’s economy. The program will develop infrastructure, design new policies and regulations, and create logistics hubs to improve local, regional, and international connectivity of trade and transport networks.

On the other hand, the Health Sector Transformation Program will launch in 2021 to help Saudi Arabia create a comprehensive, effective, and integrated health system. The program aims to facilitate access to and improve the quality of health-care services and pharmaceutical products in the country.

Pharmaceutical market expansion in Saudi Arabia

The pharmaceutical sector is growing quickly, with global medicine spending forecast to reach nearly $1.6 trillion by 2025, according to IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science. To keep up, sector stakeholders need highly advanced cold storage solutions. This is especially true in Saudi Arabia and surrounding countries where temperatures soar for most of the year.

Market outlook for life sciences warehousing

According to the Ken Research report Saudi Arabia Pharmaceutical Logistics Market Outlook to 2025, the rising demand for pharmaceutical drugs and government support for health care will drive market growth through the forecast period. Key findings from the report include the following:

• A compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the pharma logistics market in Saudi Arabia of 7.0 percent from 2014 to 2019 and a forecasted CAGR of 10.2 percent for 2019 to 2025
• A CAGR for the pharma freight forwarding market of 4.8 percent from 2014 to 2019 and a forecasted CAGR of 11.4 percent for 2019 to 2025
• A CAGR for the pharma warehousing market of 10.1 percent from 2014 to 2019 and a forecasted CAGR of 9.6 percent for 2019 to 2025

These projections of growth, therefore, indicate rising opportunities for life sciences warehousing in a country that spent $5.3 billion on pharma imports in 2019.

A key player in the biopharmaceutical third-party logistics market

According to market research by Grand View Research, the biopharmaceutical third-party logistics market size was estimated at $94.4 billion in revenue in 2020. It’s expected to reach $99 billion in 2021 and $145.2 billion by 2028. And this market research, which looked at market size by supply chain, service type, and region, found Agility to be a key player in biopharmaceutical third-party logistics worldwide.

Supporting Saudi health care with life sciences warehousing services

As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia strives toward providing citizens and visitors with top-tier medical services, having access to secure, reliably stored, and temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals will be vital. Life sciences warehousing will help make this possible and increase the availability of high-quality pharmaceuticals to all in the region.

Strategically located life sciences warehousing

Pharmaceutical supply chain logistics is highly complex: an international pharmaceutical shipment could change hands six to fifteen times en route along the cold chain to a patient. Complicating this are the great distances between consumer centers and healthcare network hubs in the Middle East.

Pharmaceutical companies operating in the Middle East need warehousing solutions strategically located close to these centers and hubs. This shortens stops along the cold chain and can help prevent spoilage of temperature-sensitive medications that are moving to patients in warmer climates.

Improving pharmaceutical storage

Pharmaceutical companies need fully managed, clean, modern, smoothly run facilities to store valuable medications, equipment, and other medical devices. Many pharmaceuticals need not only temperature control but also storage in different temperature zones—an innovative cold-chain storage solution developed with flexibility in mind is key.

As the pharmaceutical market expands, scalability will also be important. Companies moving pharmaceutical products in this region will also need enough cold storage space to support increasing volumes of inventory.

Ensuring safety for pharmaceutical products

Another key element of life sciences warehousing is securing the safety of pharmaceutical products. Prescription medications are a popular target for counterfeiters who create counterfeit labels. Also, since pharmaceuticals are in such high demand worldwide, they’re a common target for hijackers trying to steal and resell them.

Plus—accidents happen. A small fire in a warehouse can spread quickly and destroy an entire inventory supply in minutes. Pharmaceutical companies, at a minimum, need facilities with controlled access. The most fully secure compounds also leverage continuous video surveillance, a dedicated security staff, and systems to prevent fire and other similar catastrophic events.

Meeting life sciences warehousing demands during COVID-19

Life sciences warehousing is a critical component of the global vaccination effort that’s necessary for combating the COVID-19 pandemic. As vaccines appear on the market around the world, the global vaccination effort has greatly impacted pharmaceutical supply chains. Adapting supply chains for COVID-19 vaccines means the following:

• Standardizing COVID-19 vaccine packaging
• Coordinating vaccine deliveries when two doses are necessary
• Maintaining the COVID-19 accessory supply chain for supplies such as needles and alcohol swabs
• Communicating openly across all agents within the supply chain

Modern logistics facilities like Agility’s are essential for managing the supply chains that will help the world conquer COVID-19.

Agility’s life sciences warehousing in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, Agility understands these complex challenges and factors them into its life sciences warehousing offerings in Saudi Arabia: Agility’s life sciences warehousing enables storage in multiple temperature zones to ensure that pharmaceuticals are stored in the right environmental conditions.

Agility also provides security to all warehousing parks as well as 24-7 power and connectivity. Pharmaceuticals and their ingredients stored at Agility’s life sciences warehouses are guaranteed in both quality and safety.

Further, if there are instances of problematic prescription medications, Agility’s transparent warehousing can help identify which batch the problematic prescription came from and help locate the rest of it. Ensuring this level of pharmaceutical safety is only possible with advanced warehousing services and management.

Warehousing infrastructure in Saudi Arabia

With multiple offices and warehouse parks serving ports and airports throughout the nation, Agility is a key player in the life sciences warehousing sector in Saudi Arabia. In addition to offices, Agility has a strategically located logistics park in the capital Riyadh. The state-of-the-art facility offers more than 870,000 square meters of warehousing in the Sulay industrial area.

Agility is perfectly suited for life sciences warehousing, with frozen, chilled, and temperature-controlled warehousing options. At the opening of the Riyadh logistics park in 2019, Dr. Nabil al-Amoudi, minister of transportation, said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is heavily investing in logistics infrastructure…in line with the goal set out in Vision 2030. The support of key private sector partners, such as Agility, will help us achieve this vision.”

Agility chairperson Henadi Al-Saleh echoed this sentiment: “Agility is committed to building infrastructure that will strengthen the business environment for both multinationals and small- and medium-sized businesses in the Kingdom. Our investments, valued at SAR 1 billion, are aimed at driving the development of logistics facilities across Saudi Arabia. The Agility Logistics Park in Riyadh represents our commitment to supporting the Kingdom’s 2030 vision to become a regional and global logistics hub.”

Become part of the vision

The market for pharma and life sciences warehousing is expanding in Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030. And Agility Logistics Parks is helping the kingdom realize its goals—Agility is the go-to life sciences warehousing provider turning Saudi Arabia into a global life sciences hub.

With secure temperature zone–controlled storage strategically located in Riyadh, Agility’s life sciences warehousing is supporting the government’s efforts to provide Saudi Arabian citizens with high-quality pharmaceuticals and prescription medications. By exceeding business and market requirements, helping realize the goals of Vision 2030, and meeting rising demands during the COVID-19 pandemic, Agility Logistics Parks in Saudi Arabia stands apart from the competition.

Contact Agility for life sciences warehousing in Saudi Arabia so your company can make the most of the rapidly growing pharmaceutical logistics market.