ALEPPO, Syria — The Sharan subdistrict of Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo opened March 30 the first pharmaceutical factory in the areas controlled by the Syrian opposition in northwestern Syria. The project managers seek to cover part of the area's needs of medicines, and they promise to increase production lines and drug varieties in the coming period.

Deputy head of the local council in Afrin Mohammed Sheikh Rashid; the deputy governor of Turkey's Hatay province, whose name was not mentioned; the head of the Afrin Health Directorate affiliated with the Syrian opposition's self-styled interim government, Ahmed Haji Hassan; and several legal figures in the area attended the opening.

Khaled al-Khatib, a doctor living in the northern countryside of Aleppo who is a partner in the newly established pharmaceutical factory named Sky Pharma, told Al-Monitor, “The drug factory is a private company, owned by a group of Syrian partners, made up of industrialists, pharmacists and chemists who have experience in the field of manufacturing and marketing medicinal and pharmaceutical products.”

He said, “The idea for a drug factory project began in early 2021, as we studied the market in opposition areas in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib. We found that some medicines are missing or if found, their prices would be too high for the locals’ purchasing power. This encouraged us to move forward in implementing the idea and establishing a laboratory to manufacture medicines.”