Africa's largest cancer drug production unit opens in Tunisia

TUNIS, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The largest cancer drug production unit in Africa and the Middle East opened Monday in Tunisia, Tunisian government announced on Monday.

This unit, located in the governorate of Nabeul in northeast Tunisia, costs an investment of over 50 million Tunisian dinars ( 20.47 million U.S. dollars). It will hire 100 employees including doctors and pharmacists.

According to Lassaad Boujebal, the founder of this project, this unit is a pharmaceutical laboratory specialized in the manufacture of cancer and biological drugs.

Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said in a brief statement that "we hope to cover the needs for local manufactured drugs, to reach a rate of 60 percent in 2020 against 51 percent in 2016."

Youssef Chahed said the pharmaceutical industry sector in Tunisia aims to develop its turnover by 2020 to reach 1.35 billion dinars. Enditem