Articles

In a recent conversation with PharmaBoardroom, Prof. Hisham Bin Saad Al-Jadhey, CEO of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) outlined the organisation’s strategic priorities. As part of the Authority’s 2018-2022 strategic plan, it has set out a number of goals, ranging from setting clearer objectives to strengthening its capabilities, investing more into communication and…

Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030 economic transformation plan aims at transitioning the Middle East’s largest economy away from an over-reliance on fossil fuels and into a more diversified modern nation. This transition is being felt especially keenly in healthcare, where the Ministry of Health’s functions are shifting with the aim of providing Saudi citizens with…

Seasoned executive Mohamed Nasser currently oversees 16 markets for Amgen across the MEA region, including its most important – Saudi Arabia. He shares some of the key skills that pharma executives overseeing his region need to succeed.   As region head for a company that is only 40 years old, Nasser is facing challenges that…

Historic Saudi healthcare firm Tamer Group has transitioned from a distributor into one of the country’s leading fully-fledged pharmaceutical companies since the 1990s, aided in large part by strategic partnerships with leading Japanese firms. With the family-owned firm seeking further progression, Chairman and Managing Partner Aymen Tamer highlights his vision for the company’s future.  …

Saudi Chemical Company Holding (SCCH), Saudi Arabia’s leading manufacturer of civil and military explosives, has been expanding its pharma sector footprint in recent years. Today, the company has capabilities across pharma distribution through SITCO Pharma, manufacturing (both for its own products and as a contract manufacturing organisation (CMO)) via AJA Pharma, nutrition and medical equipment…

Before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed office in 2017, Saudi Arabian women had only a marginal presence in the Kingdom’s labour force. However, since then notable milestones achieved include granting women the right to drive, access to sports, a first female ambassador, freedom to travel, the right to live alone, greater workforce participation, and…

The Saudi medtech market was valued at USD 2.25 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 3.87 billion at a CAGR of 9.5 percent by 2023, according to Market Research Future. Like other parts of the Saudi healthcare continuum, the country’s medtech industry is extremely dynamic and changing rapidly, as the five trends…

Saudi Arabia has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world – over 17 percent of the population are diabetic – making the supply of insulin products a matter of significant national interest. To this end, the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between historic US diabetes leader Eli Lilly and AJA Pharma,…

Few stakeholders are better placed to assess the landscape for rare disease therapies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region than Karim Smaira and Kamel Ghammachi of Genpharm, an entrepreneurial success story that now provides market access and marketing solutions for rare disease products across the region.   As CEO Smaira explains, the…