Life Pharma, a pharmaceutical unit of VPS Healthcare, plans to set up a research and manufacturing plant in the Khalifa Industrial Zone (Kizad), Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The company plans to invest Dh587 million ($159.77 million) in the new plant, which will  produce anti-cancer drugs, a Gulf News report said.

The plant will be the first facility to produce anti-cancer drugs in the GCC region, it was announced at the ground-breaking ceremony held last week in Kizad.

The new centre will occupy a 1.7 million-sq-ft plot in Kizad’s pharmaceutical and health care cluster and will contain four production facilities. Alongside the cancer control and research facility, the other three will produce vaccines, sterile injections and oral solid dosage to be used in the treatment of illnesses, such as hepatitis and influenza, the report said

The facility is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of next year and operational in the following year.

VPS Healthcare owns and manages various hospitals in the UAE, Oman and India.