Pharco Opens New Eye Drops Line, Launches "Vision for All" Initiative
Pharco has switched on a new eye drops production line at its Amreya City site in Alexandria. Alongside it, the company is launching a broader push to get more people across Egypt and the region screened for eye disease before it does lasting damage.
The line itself cost around EGP 300 million, part of a wider EGP 500 million upgrade at Amreya. Annual capacity: 20 million packs, enough to cover close to 19 percent of Egypt's domestic ophthalmic drops market, put at more than 100 million packs a year, and around 11 percent of combined demand across Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa, estimated at roughly 177 million packs annually. It produces treatments for dry eye, glaucoma, inflammation, post-surgical care, and allergies, relying on aseptic processing and gamma sterilization carried out with the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, plus Syntegon preparation units and Groninger filling equipment. The broader Amreya expansion also brought a new penicillin tablets line (19 million units a year) and pushed topical products capacity up to 30 million units, backed by new digital quality systems and a new R&D and clinical studies centre.
The line went live alongside the launch of "Vision for All," an initiative built around catching eye disease early, starting with glaucoma. It runs medical convoys into underserved areas under the "Nour Einak" ("Light of Your Eyes") banner, donates specialised equipment (including a dry eye treatment unit for Minya University), trains physicians, and is building a digital follow-up system that pairs treatment reminders with electronic medical records.
Pharco also signed a cooperation protocol with the Egyptian Ophthalmological Society and the Egyptian Society for the Glaucomas, aimed at expanding intraocular pressure screening, raising public awareness of glaucoma, and building a shared system to track patients over time. Signing it were Pharco Chairman Dr. Sherine Helmy, Egyptian Ophthalmological Society President Khaled Morad, and Egyptian Society for the Glaucomas President Mostafa Nassar, with the Universal Health Insurance Authority and the Unified Procurement Authority also involved in parts of the programme.
"The launch of the 'Vision for All' initiative, concurrent with the commissioning of this advanced ophthalmic eye drops production line, embodies Pharco's belief that the role of modern pharmaceutical manufacturing extends beyond the provision of high-quality medicines," Helmy said at the launch. "It equally encompasses prevention, early detection, and the forging of effective partnerships with the medical community and healthcare institutions."
The need is real: Egypt's ophthalmic drugs market moves more than 100 million packs and roughly 16.7 million prescriptions a year, an estimated one million people are living with glaucoma nationwide, and dry eye syndrome is widespread. Officials at the opening, including Egyptian Drug Authority Chairman Ali El-Ghamrawy and Unified Procurement Authority Vice Chairman Hesham Badr, called the project consistent with Egypt's Vision 2030 and a model for public-private cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector. The facility runs to Good Manufacturing Practice standards recognised by the Egyptian Drug Authority and holds WHO and EU-GMP certifications, which the company says will support both domestic supply and export growth into the Middle East and Africa.
Pharco Corporation — Pharco press release.
