Saudi Arabia shuts illegal cosmetics facility, suspends European pharmaceutical factory over safety breaches

Dubai: In a sweeping enforcement campaign aimed at protecting consumer health, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has taken decisive action on two separate fronts — seizing 1.5 million non-compliant cosmetic products stored illegally in a residential facility and suspending a European pharmaceutical factory after uncovering serious violations of manufacturing standards.

 In Najran, SFDA inspectors shut down an unauthorised warehouse disguised as a residential facility, where approximately 1.5 million units of cosmetic products with manipulated expiration dates were being stored and distributed.

The items, which violated national safety regulations, posed a direct risk to consumer health. The authority has referred the case to the Public Prosecution for further legal action.

“This type of fraud represents a serious threat to public safety and will not be tolerated,” the SFDA said in a statement, adding that it remains committed to combating all forms of non-compliance in the cosmetics sector.

Under Article 31 of the Kingdom’s Cosmetics Law, offences such as tampering with expiration dates or distributing falsified products can result in up to five years in prison, fines of up to SR5 million or both.

In a separate case, the SFDA announced the suspension of a European pharmaceutical manufacturer’s registration following an external inspection that revealed serious breaches of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).  Inspectors identified significant failures in production procedures and internal quality systems — lapses that were deemed to pose a direct risk to the safety of medicines destined for the Saudi market.

The inspection was conducted under the SFDA’s foreign factory oversight programme, which adheres to international regulatory standards and involves detailed assessments of production, quality control, and distribution protocols. Describing the suspension as a “precautionary measure,” the authority said it was enacted to prevent the entry of potentially unsafe pharmaceutical products into the Kingdom.