The Interaction of Pharmaceutical Regulations in Saudi Arabia With the Presence of FDI: Facilitating FDI in Saudi Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

Recent literature on pharmaceutical regulations focuses on the apparently increasing scope for intimate relationships between the regulation framework and FDI opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry. This chapter deals with these interactions within the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In 2015, Saudi Arabia was the largest market in the Middle East for drug companies and has one of the most sophisticated healthcare systems in the region. Yet, the Saudi drug regulatory regime have been criticized for having ambiguous procedures from both domestic and foreign companies. In addition, many international agreements have been signed by the Saudi government to encourage and protect foreign direct investment (FDI) in different sectors including the pharmaceutical industry. This research pursued to discover whether the international regulatory regime, based on the theoretical principles of free trade and applied to the international trade relations of KSA, interacts in any manner with the pharmaceutical industry's trends.