Health & Life Sciences

The health care sector in Saudi Arabia receives an average of 16.5% of the government’s annual budget, reflecting its importance to socio-economic development. The Covid-19 pandemic placed significant pressure on health care systems worldwide, yet the intensified throughput allowed governments to identify weaknesses in their health services and supply chains. Saudi Arabia’s substantial sovereign reserves have seen it emerge from the worst of the pandemic in a strong position to remedy the vulnerabilities exposed by the unprecedented events of 2020-22. Moving forwards, the government plans to increase efforts to create an integrated, high-quality, value-based health care system. Public-private partnerships are targeted at strengthen specific areas of health care infrastructure, while investment in research and development capacity is set to increase.

This chapter contains an interview with Hisham bin Saad Aljadhey, CEO, Saudi Food and Drug Authority; and Fahad Al Shebel, CEO, the National Unified Procurement.