Tagged with Africa

Morocco Driss Chaoui outlines recent milestones in Afric-Phar’s over 50-year history, including the launch of its first in-house developed generic, and discusses the firm’s unique focus on orphan and rare diseases and the challenges facing the field in Morocco. He also reviews the opportunities presented by the transformation of Morocco’s regulatory…

Morocco Three years on from his last PharmaBoardroom interview, Karim Lahlou highlights the evolution of Moroccan pharma manufacturer Iberma as it expands its activities from solely in-licensing to developing and selling its own products, growing its global partnership base, and looking to penetrate international markets while leveraging the growing reputation of…

Morocco DHL’s Tina Manoukian lays out how the global logistics giant helped ensure the safe and timely distribution of medicines and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, outlines the scope and scale of DHL operations in Morocco, and explains why the country is well positioned to become a distribution and logistics hub…

Middle East & Africa Mourad Ishak began heading up Farmak’s MEA region as general manager in 2021, after almost two decades in the industry. He explains the Ukranian complex generics maker’s decision to set up an affiliate in the UAE, underlining government flexibility and agility in the region and ongoing regulatory improvements, factors which…

Morocco Younes Lamarti of Africa Global Logistics (AGL) explains the impact of the company’s recent acquisition by MSC, the world’s leading shipping line, how it is partnering on biopharmaceutical distribution and logistics projects across both Morocco and Africa, and some of the key supply chain trends at play in the country…

Morocco The COVID-19 pandemic exposed Africa’s dependence on overseas production as vaccines were quickly rolled out in other parts of the world while  African countries remained at the bottom of the list. The need to build capacity on the continent has been widely recognized, but few Western actors have yet made…

Morocco MARBIO, a new vaccine manufacturing joint venture in Morocco, is the result of a partnership between the BAB banking consortium (Bank of Africa, Banque Centrale Populaire, and Attijariwafa Bank), Swedish CDMO Recipharm and the Mohammed VI Fund. Recipharm CEO Marc Funk and MARBIO General Manager Younès Hillali outline the scale…

Global Amgen has forged a solid position as one of the world’s largest independent biotechnology companies. With a market capitalisation of some USD 130 billion and 27 approved medicines, the US-based firm has come a long way from its original biotech upstart status in 1980. Nonetheless, Amgen has faced obstacles in…

Morocco Maphar, a 72-year mainstay of the Moroccan pharma industry with both production and distribution arms, has achieved considerable success in recent years, expanding its international network to now reach over 42 big-name partners. General Manager Pierre Labbé outlines the significant footprint of the company – part of the CFAO Group…

Middle East & Africa As profit margins in established markets decreased, “pharmerging markets” became the new El Dorado for pharma and medtech companies in the 2010s. Many put in big investments only to discover that the volatility of these geographies often meant that the expected returns did not materialise. However, especially post-COVID, emerging markets…

UAE Rodrigo Rodriguez, as area head for UMEA at Takeda, leads a vast and varied region that includes Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa and is characterised by what he calls “geographical and economic volatility,” with an extreme example being the conflict in Ukraine. He discusses the challenges presented by the…

Middle East & Africa Head of the Middle East region and GM for the Middle East & Africa affiliate, Basel Thaher outlines his 18-year career at Menarini and discusses the Italian family-run company’s footprint in the region where it has a direct presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt and plans to…