MANAMA – Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, the investment arm of the Kingdom of Bahrain, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SBI Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. as part of the Kingdom's visit to Japan. The visiting delegation was led by Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, the First Deputy Prime Minister, and the chairman of the Economic Development Board. The MoU formalizes an understanding between both parties to explore various areas of cooperation in the pharmaceutical industry, including research, development, and production of pharmaceutical products. Commenting on the MoU, Mahmood Hashim Al Kooheji, Chief Executive Officer of Mumtalakat, said: “We adopt a sector-focused approach to investment, built on value creation initiatives that we believe will contribute to the sustainable development of the Bahraini economy. This MoU is in line with our new strategic direction that focuses primarily on Bahrain, and supports our plans to develop new projects in existing and new sectors in the kingdom.” He added “Mumtalakat is the partner of choice for companies looking to do business in Bahrain and the wider GCC region. We look forward to exploring these areas of potential collaboration with SBI, and look forward to raising Bahrain's professional expertise and manufacturing capacity in this rapidly growing sector.” SBI is a leading innovator in the development and manufacturing of products containing 5-ALA, a key component of ‘heme' and ‘chlorophyll', which composes the non-protein part of ‘hemoglobin', which in turn is responsible for transporting oxygen around the body. Applications of the 5-ALA include food supplements, cosmetics, cancer detection, diagnoses and screening, prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders, and agricultural utilization. Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO, SBI, said: “The 5-ALA project will benefit the Kingdom of Bahrain and the GCC by fulfilling unmet preventive and therapeutic needs of various diseases, providing highly technical job opportunities to the young generation, building up the research platform to attract international pharmaceutical and medical industry, and reducing the medical expenditure of the government. Allow me to stress that this is a great contribution to helping maintain a high quality of life for all the people in the GCC. We are greatly pleased and honored to work with Mumtalakat and other governmental, academic and business partners in Bahrain for this innovative project.” — SG
