India Tycoon to open Plant for Sovaldi Production in Egypt

Pharmed Healthcare, a company owned by India’s most popular billionaire Bavaguthu  Raghuram Shetty, announced that it will inaugurate next Sunday a plant in Egypt to produce the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi.

Pharmed Healthcare is a newly-established joint venture between Indian, UAE and Egyptian partners.

The plant is located in Sadat City, Monufia Governorate.

Furthermore, Pharmed Healthcare added in a statement released on Tuesday that the Egyptian Minister of Health Adel El-Adawi would take part in the inauguration ceremony of the new plant, in the presence of the Indian ambassador in Cairo and Monufia governor.

Sovaldi is a prescription medicine used with other antiviral medicines to treat chronic (lasting a long time) hepatitis C (Hep C) infection in adults. It is produced by Gilead, which was criticized for selling the drug at high prices. Yet the company offered in 2014 to sell it to Egypt at a 99-percent discount.

Egypt is known to have the highest rate of hepatitis C infections in the world due to poverty and lack of proper sanitation.