Saudi Arabia’s Biotech Renaissance: A Two-Pronged Strategy to Build a Future-Ready Innovation Ecosystem
Authored by:
Mohamed A. Kamal, PharmD, PhD, Senior Group Director, Regeneron, ‘25 EMBA, MIT Sloan School of Management
Suhail Karam Ali, Managing Partner, Integra Investment Group Limited, ‘25 EMBA, MIT Sloan School of Management
Khalid Alhussaini, PhD, Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Institute, King Saud University, Member of MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) Team Riyadh (2023-2025)
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Executive Summary
Saudi Arabia is on the cusp of a biotechnology transformation. Under the bold vision of Vision 2030, the Kingdom has launched its first National Biotechnology Strategy with aspirations to become the regional leader by 2030 and a global biotech hub by 2040. The strategy sets ambitious goals: creating 11,000 biotech jobs by 2030, expanding to 55,000 by 2040, and contributing $34.6 billion - roughly 3% of non-oil GDP.
Yet this vision is not merely aspirational; it is grounded in policy, infrastructure, and momentum already underway. The Kingdom is executing what the authors refer to as a “Track 1” strategy, which is focused on large-scale biomanufacturing to ensure pharmaceutical self-sufficiency. But an essential question arises: can Saudi Arabia complement this manufacturing prowess with a parallel innovation track that turns research into home-grown biotech breakthroughs? This article argues emphatically: yes - and it must.
Why Dual-Track Matters
The authors define “Track 2” as a bottom-up mission to cultivate a dynamic biotech startup ecosystem, empowering entrepreneurial ventures from the laboratory bench to the marketplace. Global experience shows that nations capturing both innovation and manufacturing create significantly more value than those focusing on production alone. The U.S. and Switzerland generate most of their biotech returns from intellectual property and new drug approvals. In contrast, manufacturing-led hubs like India and Ireland deliver volume but capture only a fraction of the economic upside.
Saudi Arabia’s opportunity is clear: complement its “Made in KSA” push with an “Invented in KSA” pipeline. Innovation yields higher salaries, greater export value, strategic resilience, and the multiplier effects of a knowledge economy. R&D-intensive sectors attract global partnerships, drive high-impact talent development, and provide long-term returns that compound far beyond short-term manufacturing contracts.
The Current Landscape
Saudi Arabia is well-positioned to pursue this dual-track strategy. R&D investment reached SAR 22.6 billion (approximately $6 billion) in 2023, growing 17.4% year-on-year. Institutions like King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) host world-class facilities, including Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) pilot plants and genome sequencing centers. The Saudi Human Genome Program has already sequenced over 65,000 individuals. Regulatory alignment is improving rapidly, with the Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) joining international standards bodies and streamlining clinical approvals.
Human capital is also expanding. By the end of 2023, the country employed over 49,000 R&D personnel, with women earning more than half of science degrees. King Saud University (KSU) and KAUST are climbing global academic rankings, while young Saudis are entering STEM fields at scale. This talent base is critical to fueling innovation.
Startups: Small in Number, Big in Promise
Saudi biotech startups are still few but growing. Supported by programs like the Ministry of Health’s Biotech Accelerator and the Ministry of Investment’s Startup Development Program, early-stage ventures are tackling diagnostics, vaccines, regenerative medicine, and genetic therapies. Notable names include Plansulin, Novo Genomics, and CamelX. The potential is clear, but the startup density and funding ecosystem remain underdeveloped.
Structural barriers persist. Government employees - including many academic researchers - are still legally restricted from registering companies. Local venture capital remains limited, with most biotech deals under $5 million. The technical complexity and long ROI timelines of biotech make it a hard sell for generalist investors.
But change is underway. Programs like TAQADAM, international VC outreach, and state-backed innovation funds (like Sanabil and the new SAR 2 billion fund-of-funds) are beginning to address the funding gap.
Cultural factors also play a role: risk aversion and a preference for stable public-sector roles have historically hindered entrepreneurial capacity. Driven by the Kingdom’s young and impressionable population however, more early-career scientists are embracing entrepreneurship, signaling the potential for a meaningful cultural shift.
Parallel, Not Sequential
The report advocates strongly for a parallel approach: pursue manufacturing and innovation simultaneously. A sequential model risks cementing a low-margin identity and missing the high-value wave of IP and R&D. Global evidence suggests the most successful ecosystems like South Korea invested in R&D even as they scaled manufacturing.
Saudi Arabia already has many of the hardest-to-build assets: capital, labs, talent, and policy alignment. What it needs now is to scale entrepreneurial capacity, open access to research infrastructure, strengthen tech transfer, and activate private venture capital.\
A Roadmap Forward
The article outlines ten key policy levers to activate Track 2: from building shared wet labs and launching national accelerators, to reforming university tech transfer and streamlining clinical trials. KPIs are proposed for each lever, with traffic-light progress indicators tracking current performance.
The authors argue that this innovation track should not be viewed as an optional extension but as a necessary complement to the Kingdom’s biotech ambitions. Innovation culture, once missed, is difficult to retrofit. But if pursued in parallel with manufacturing, Saudi Arabia can unlock a self-reinforcing biotech engine that produces, exports, and owns high-value biomedical innovations. Therefore, we propose that Saudi Arabia refresh its national biotechnology strategy by formally mandating Track 2 alongside Track 1 and recruiting the necessary stakeholders to execute the dual strategy goals.
Conclusion
Saudi Arabia has the rare opportunity to leapfrog into the upper echelon of biotech nations. By coupling its manufacturing drive with an innovation ecosystem that nurtures startups, develops IP, and attracts global partners, the Kingdom can achieve both economic diversification and sustainable health sovereignty. Now is the time to move decisively on both tracks. The rewards - economic, strategic, and societal - will compound for generations.
To discover the full roadmap, stakeholder analysis, and case studies behind this transformation, read the full article.
About the Authors
Mohamed Kamal, Senior Director and Head of Immunology Clinical Pharmacology at Regeneron, has a PharmD and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is a US drug developer with over 20 years’ experience in the pharma and biotech industries.
Suhail Karam Ali, managing partner at Integra Investment Group, is an entrepreneur specializing in real estate investments in the Gulf Region.
Both Mohamed and Suhail met while completing their Executive MBAs at Sloan MIT. During their EMBA, both have visited and met members representing stakeholders of the inspiring biotech ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, enabled by Khalid Alhussaini, PhD.
Khalid Al Hussaini is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute, and Deputy VP for Innovation Strategy at King Saud University; and an alum of MIT REAP and therefore of MIT Sloan School of Management.
The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Philip Budden, Senior Lecturer, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, for his deep insights on innovation ecosystems.