Saudi Arabia 33-year pharma industry veteran Georg Schroeckenfuchs currently heads up the vast Middle East & Africa (MEA) region for Swiss behemoth Novartis, overseeing 19 countries, over 1800 employees, and more than USD 900 million in revenues. In a recent conversation within the frame of PharmaBoardroom’s current focus on Saudi Arabia, the…

Turkey As COVID-19 began spreading through the world, the race to understand the disease by scientists and doctors took off. After just a few months, it became apparent that people with diabetes seemed to suffer more severe effects; 50 percent of people diagnosed with COVID-19 also suffered from diabetes. As a…

Saudi Arabia Historically dependent on oil, Saudi Arabia, like most countries in the Arabian Peninsula, is now investing a large chunk of the sizeable resources obtained from fossil fuels in diversifying its economy. Pharmaceuticals, as one of the strategic sectors in the country’s diversification strategy, has reaped the benefits and the Saudi…

MEA Mohamed Nasser, Amgen’s general manager for the vast Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, leverages his considerable experience managing teams across the region to highlight four skills (and one secret ingredient) that pharma country and regional managers in MEA need to succeed.   The Middle East-Africa area (MEA) is one…

Turkey As the international community continues its quest to vaccinate the global population against COVID-19, shortages of already approved vaccines have put many countries on the waiting list. Approved vaccines from the United States, Europe, China and Russia have taken the lead but new candidates from the rest of the world…

Saudi Arabia 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,…

Saudi Arabia A rundown of five things to know about the USD 8.2 billion Saudi pharma market, including the impact of ‘Vision 2030’, the country’s leading position in the MENA region, why halal pharmaceuticals are not to be ignored, the regional firms playing among global giants in the Kingdom, and leading therapeutic…

Saudi Arabia Following on from our list of the overall top 10 companies in the Saudi Arabian pharma market, here PharmaBoardroom highlights some of the top domestic companies in the USD 8.2 billion Saudi pharma market, many of which are now well-established and carving out international footprints.   Tabuk Pharmaceuticals Founded in…

South Africa South African firm Aspen has inked a deal with Johnson & Johnson for the technical transfer and proposed commercial manufacture of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2-S, boosting the company’s share price as well as its global profile.   Aspen is best known internationally for bringing generic antiretrovirals for HIV to…

Turkey When Abdi Ibrahim acquired a 28.5 percent stake in Swiss biotech OM Pharma in September 2020, it represented a historic moment for Turkey’s pharma industry; the first time a Turkish firm had ever taken part in the management of a European company.   With this partnership agreement, the long trend…

Saudi Arabia The top 10 pharma companies in Saudi Arabia ranked by sales value in USD millions MAT Q1 2019. These top 10 corporations account for 50 percent of total sales in the USD 8.2 billion Saudi pharma market. Global giants Pfizer, Sanofi, and Novartis make up the top three spots, but…

Opinion As COVID-19 threatens to derail more than a decade’s worth of hard-won gains in the fight against malaria, Dr Benjamin Pretorius, managing director at ERADA Technology Alliance, warns that diversions of malaria resources and interruptions to prevention programmes may cost thousands of lives.   Malaria still takes the lives of…