Iraq looks forward to inaugurating the region’s largest cancer drug factory in Abu Ghraib, which is situated 32 kilometers – equivalent to 20 miles west of Baghdad, in December 2025 at a cost of around 50 million euros.
This step is part of the government’s continued efforts to go ahead and develop the health sector, especially when it comes to the localization of the pharmaceutical industries.
Hammoudi al-Lami, the advisor to the Prime Minister for Industry and Private Sector Development, told al-Sabah, the state-run newspaper, on November 27, 2025, that the factory has started to develop medicinal formulations for the most popular kinds of cancer by way of putting in place advanced European production lines.
In addition to setting up the largest cancer drug factory in the region, the Iraqi government looks forward to providing cancer medicines at prices that are subsidized, i.e., 50% lower as compared to the imported ones, as per al-Sabah.
The Iraqi official also went on to indicate that the localization plan goes on to have 19 factories that are at present under construction, some of which are going to become operational in 2026, whereas similar projects have already been completed in the provinces of Basra as well as Karbala.
Al-Lami in June 2025 had said that the pharmaceutical localization program in Iraq is forecasted to cover 70% of the domestic medicine needs of the country within a span of the coming two years.
Hani al-Oqabi, the deputy health minister, had remarked in July 2025 that the agreement that has been done with Sanofi, which is a French pharmaceutical and healthcare company, is indeed an essential step when it comes to strengthening the pharmaceutical industry of Iraq.
A-Lami had revealed earlier that AstraZeneca, which is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that is based out of Cambridge, is also planning to build a pharmaceutical facility in Iraq.
Moreover, Baxter, the US multinational healthcare company, along with businesses based out of the Gulf States, had also in the past expressed a desire to become part of the Iraqi market, as per al-Lami.
The steps go on to sync with the objectives which have been outlined in the agenda set by the Iraqi government, which highlights the development of the health sector of the country.
