A group of Jordanian pharmaceutical companies fear that operations of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. may affect them should it decide to cooperate with a local company.
Representatives of the Israeli pharmaceutical giant met with local companies in the framework of a Brazilian industrialists’ delegation. The meeting took place on Thursday in Amman under the guidance of the Amman Chambers of Commerce and Industry, provoking anger from bodies which object to the normalization of relations with the Jewish Country.
They who opposed the meeting had learned of it only a short time before it actually took place. They sent faxes and SMS messages to Jordanian companies in protest, but the messages came too late.
Talal Elabu, a spokesman for the Islamic faction in the Jordanian pharmacists’ union, warned Jordanian companies not to give the Israeli firm “a foot inside the Hashemite Kingdom”.
In the anti-Israel periodical al-Sabeel, Elabu was quoted as saying:
“Teva is one of the biggest companies in the world operating in the field of generic drugs. Every step it takes into the Jordanian market will have a negative effect on our national industry. If it enters the market, we can see this as the end of part of our pharmaceutical industry.”
He hinted that in addition to the Amman Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Jordanian Ministry of Health was also involved in hosting the Israeli company, in contravention of the Pharmacists Union guidelines that forbid commerce with Israeli companies.
“We will respond harshly to any company that cooperates with Teva.”
Leave a Reply