A world-class pharma facility for Saudi Arabia’s future

Wood’s ability to draw on its extensive global expertise in pharmaceutical and life sciences, plus our multi-sector experience in local environments, is how we added project value. To better answer client requests, Wood also built a multicultural team of engineers who worked in perfect integration with Pfizer corporate and local site teams along every step of the project.

That we were able to deliver wide-ranging services under one project management team – like, site master planning, conceptual and basic design, detailed engineering, subcontracting support, technical support to the main contractor during the construction phase, plus final commissioning and qualification management – was a difference maker, too, and that enabled us to more closely align with Pfizer’s needs.

Even in the early design stages, when project targets weren’t yet completely defined – and different ideas and visions needed to be considered – our project team provided effective support for a smooth decision process, by sharing key criteria, background and alternatives. We followed that up with an extensive design-to-cost exercise, which involved a deep re-thinking of project requirements and site arrangement, as well as the quality of equipment and materials. The result was a substantially optimized project budget which was in line with our client’s financial targets.

The US $50M plant formally opened in 2017. Located in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) on the west coast of the Red Sea and about 100km north of Jeddah, it includes manufacturing, primary and secondary packaging, quality control labs and warehousing, as well as staff support spaces. With a total developed surface area in the range of 11,000 m², it has the capacity to produce 18 million packs of solid dosage forms annually.