From Production to National Sovereignty: How Abdelhamid Cherfaoui Shapes the Renaissance of Algeria’s Pharmaceutical Industry
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – December 2025 – In an era defined by mounting health vulnerabilities and economic volatility, Abdelhamid Cherfaoui — Chairman and CEO of Frater-Razes Laboratories — has emerged as one of the most consequential figures in Algeria’s contemporary industrial landscape. To many, he is not simply a successful industrialist but a visionary organiser of national capabilities who has recast the very meaning of pharmaceutical production by embedding it within a doctrine of sovereignty, innovation and human dignity. His leadership illustrates how industry, when anchored in ethical purpose, becomes an instrument of statecraft and social emancipation.
Frater-Razes, headquartered in Algiers, is one of Algeria’s leading private pharmaceutical enterprises, recognised for its advanced therapeutic portfolio and for pioneering biosimilar production. Under Cherfaoui’s stewardship, the company has transcended traditional manufacturing to become a vehicle for national empowerment — a catalyst that has enabled the country to break away from dependence on imported high-value medicines and to assert technological agency in a field dominated globally by powerful industrial systems.
The defining moment of this transformation occurred on 28 September 2020, when Cherfaoui inaugurated Algeria’s first domestic biosimilar production unit. This advanced biotechnology platform, based on cell-derived therapeutic molecules for the treatment of severe chronic illnesses such as cancer and hematological diseases, represented both a scientific milestone and a political statement. Its first product, Varenox, a life-saving anti-coagulant previously imported at an annual cost of nearly €60 million, marked a watershed in the national battle for drug sovereignty. Produced locally to internationally competitive standards, Varenox redirected millions away from import expenditures, strengthened the industrial balance sheet and affirmed the technical credibility of Algerian manufacturing. As former Minister of the Pharmaceutical Industry Lotfi Benbahmed underlined, “This product was fully imported and cost the treasury close to €60 million per year. Today, we produce it locally with quality equivalent to the imported version.”
Crucially, the inauguration of a single product did not exhaust Cherfaoui’s ambition; it launched an industrial programme designed to scale capacity from 15–18 million units per year to a projected 48 million, enabling Frater-Razes to meet domestic demand while entering regional export markets with surplus production. His strategic vision establishes a new paradigm: pharmaceutical industrialisation not as local substitution but as a platform for Algerian export competitiveness and technological leadership.
At the core of this programme lies a conviction that technology is not a mere accumulation of equipment but a living ecosystem driven by human intellect. Frater-Razes’ biosimilar project was executed exclusively by Algerian engineers, pharmacists and researchers — young graduates of national universities who transformed theoretical expertise into industrial performance. Cherfaoui frequently emphasises that “industry is not machinery alone; it is built by people imbued with research and innovation.” Thus, the enterprise has grown into a training academy, one that manufactures both medicines and technical competencies, generating a skilled workforce that constitutes an asset of national value.
The company’s domestic architecture has naturally translated into international outreach. With products manufactured according to European quality standards, Frater-Razes has ventured into export markets including Libya, Egypt, Senegal and Guinea, and is negotiating entry into European jurisdictions through conformity agreements and certification procedures. Its competitive advantage rests not merely on price but on the regional need for reliable, high-quality therapeutics that remain financially accessible in contexts where fragile health systems coexist with heavy disease burdens.
Cherfaoui’s industrial ambition is not limited to scaling capacity but aims at engineering a structural shift in Algerian pharmaceutical development — from traditional chemical formulations to advanced biotechnological therapeutics, and from a model of import dependency to one of regional supply authority. The laboratory’s future programme includes the development of four to five new biosimilar molecules targeting severe pathologies, consolidating Algeria’s position as an emerging reference in the continent’s biopharmaceutical ecosystem.
Yet, behind this industrial architecture stands a leader whose approach to corporate responsibility is deeply humanitarian. During the COVID-19 crisis, Frater-Razes diverted part of its capacity to supply public hospitals — particularly in interior and High Plateau regions — with critical medicines and oxygen-related devices, free of charge. The company sponsored community screening for chronic illnesses in rural areas and engaged in the long-term medical and psychosocial support of children suffering from rare diseases. These activities extended discreetly to the families of martyrs, retired health workers and veteran pharmacists, to whom expensive treatments and direct financial aid were offered without publicity. As one collaborator observed, “In Mr. Cherfaoui’s philosophy, a patient is not a case to be treated but dignity to be preserved.”
State institutions have increasingly recognised the strategic significance of Frater-Razes. Government engagement — exemplified by investment certificates granted by former Minister Brahim Merad, as well as the participation of senior officials in industrial ceremonies — signals the laboratory’s elevation to a policy instrument of national economic and health sovereignty. Such recognition is not symbolic; it facilitates regulatory pathways, procurement access and incentive mechanisms essential to high-technology pharmaceutical production.
The structural weight of Frater-Razes is reflected in its extensive industrial infrastructure. Over three decades, the company has invested in multiple production units, research and development capabilities and laboratory systems that adhere to international quality frameworks. Its portfolio exceeds 130 product references, covering major therapeutic families such as cardiovascular medicine, oncology and acute care. This integrated system forms the backbone of its export strategy and underscores its aspiration to become a reference not only nationally but across the region.
What distinguishes Cherfaoui’s model is its deliberate privileging of national talent. Recruitment from local universities, long-term training and embedded research culture create a self-sustaining human capital pipeline — a strategy that lowers costs, reduces technological friction and embeds innovation within Algerian society rather than outsourcing it abroad. Partnerships with academic institutions, training programmes and academy-style initiatives constitute tangible vehicles of this policy.
Three decades after founding the laboratory in the early 1990s, Cherfaoui presides over one of Algeria’s most emblematic examples of industrial sovereignty in health — a vertically integrated manufacturer that spans research, production, distribution, national coverage and regional outreach. Under his leadership, Frater-Razes has evolved from a modest producer into a pharmaceutical power whose mission transcends profit.
Today, Cherfaoui’s trajectory illustrates an alternative industrial philosophy: one in which medicine is not merely a commodity but an expression of dignity, industrial infrastructure is a form of nation-building, and health policy becomes a new frontier of geopolitical agency. Launching Algeria’s first biosimilar, anchoring production in local expertise, expanding exports and institutionalising social solidarity collectively constitute an architecture of sovereignty. In this equation, the factory becomes a platform of hope, investment becomes a human story and economic strategy becomes a pathway to dignity.
Abdelhamid Cherfaoui stands, therefore, not only as an entrepreneur but as a major actor in Algeria’s national project — a technocrat whose industrial vision redefines what it means for a nation to heal itself.
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Elements of this report draw on a profile published by Algerie Diplomatique on Frater‑Razes and its leadership under Dr. Abdelhamid Cherfaoui: https://www.algeriediplomatique.com/82203/amp
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