Pfizer is committed to the development of the Saudi pharmaceutical industry in so many ways involving direct and indirect investment.
"A major part of its investment is made in transferring expertise and know-how in a life science and knowledge-based industry," Hussein El-Hakim, country manger, Pfizer Saudi Arabia, told Khalil Hanware in an exclusive interview in Jeddah.
"At the moment, our investment in Saudi Arabia runs into millions of dollars and we anticipate that this will grow as time goes," said El-Hakim who in his present role leads various operational disciplines of the Pfizer Saudi Arabia with a visionary strategic objective of developing a center of operational excellence and for the organization to become number one pharmaceutical player in the country.
Triggered by the exceptional growth of the Saudi pharmaceutical market, he said Pfizer has taken a strategic decision to reinforce its investment in Saudi Arabia and set up a new manufacturing plant at the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).
El-Hakim started his first tenure at Pfizer in December 1986 where he held many senior posts, in commercial areas including sales, marketing, training and business development. Since 2011 he has been leading Pfizer Saudi Arabia in the capacity of Country Manger.
Pfizer's diversified global health care portfolio includes human, biologic, and small molecule medicines and vaccines, and many of the world's best-known consumer products. Would you give a quick outline of Pfizer's history and profile globally?
Since inception in 1849, Pfizer Inc. has been dedicated to discovering new and better ways to help prevent and treat disease; and improve the health and quality of life for people around the world. From the miracle of penicillin, which saved the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers during the World War II, to breakthrough biologics, oncology treatments and vaccines, Pfizer focuses on meeting the world's diverse health needs. Today, Pfizer has become the world's leading biopharmaceutical company.
Having developed the motto "Working together for a healthier world," Pfizer applies science and its global resources to improve health and well-being at every stage of life. Pfizer also collaborates with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. In Saudi Arabia, we do believe in collaboration, shared responsibility and teamwork spirit being one of Pfizer key values, that's why Pfizer Saudi medical representatives managed to achieve an unprecedented track record as they have been recently ranked number one among peers from various pharmaceutical companies in the Kingdom for the 10th year in row by IMS, a leading independent global pharmaceutical and health care market intelligence firm. The IMS report findings analysis revealed that Pfizer Saudi Arabia team has impressively maintained high scale on various parameters and assessment areas.
Being an expert in the pharmaceutical industry, can you give us an insight into the industry in Saudi Arabia and how Pfizer is coping with the country's market demand?
The Saudi pharmaceutical market is the largest in the Middle East and accounts for roughly two thirds of all drug sales throughout the GCC region. Latest market research and studies revealed that the value of the Kingdom's pharmaceutical market has substantially grown to become SR 16.07 billion in 2013. With key growth drivers including increasing population, aging, and affluence; modernization; prevalence of endemic disease such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease and the establishment of more private facilities, Saudi Arabia health care needs are on the rise. Pfizer has been operating in Saudi Arabia since early 1960s and has greatly contributed to the development of pharmaceutical industry in the country in many different ways including but not limited to developing and providing quality medicines, promoting health, raising awareness of various disease and therapeutic areas and prevention solution and partnership with the local government and private health care institutions. Diabetes currently affects almost 30 percent of the population, putting Saudi Arabia inside the top 10 countries in the world in terms of the proportion of the population suffering the disorder. The current projections for growth in the prevalence of diabetes threaten to create a public health issue in Saudi Arabia. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that the number of cases of diabetes in Saudi Arabia will grow by 2.5 million by 2030. At present, the Saudi government's mean health expenditure for each diabetes patient stands at $ 682 per person. According to the US-Saudi Business Council's report, the cost to the medical sector in terms of managing the country's diabetes problem — which is the leading cause of stroke, cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure and limb amputation — is more than $ 3 billion per annum.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of global mortality, accounting for about one in every two adult deaths worldwide. Rates of CVD in developing countries, including Saudi Arabia continue to increase at an alarming rate. Pfizer scientists continue to develop novel and differentiated medicines to improve the lives of patients suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular and related co-morbidities around the world. Infectious disease is an area of great unmet medical need in Saudi Arabia and we have the local capabilities coupled with global expertise to help meet the Kingdom's anti-infectious disease needs.
Which are the widely-used Pfizer products in Saudi Arabia and in the world?
Our key focus is to provide a wide spectrum of versatile quality and evidence-based medicines from those that the population of Saudi Arabia need the most, including cardiovascular, diabetic neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis biologics, psychiatry profile, anti-infectives, oncology profile, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, gynecology profile, men's health and smoking session to breakthrough vaccines for youngsters and adults, hematology and hemophilia medicines. Pfizer has been always a leader in bringing innovative products to Saudi market immediately after they are approved by world's renowned pharmaceutical and health care regulatory bodies including FDA and EMA. We are committed to help save human lives and bring quality medicines to the rarest diseases in collaboration with the Saudi MOH/SFDA and various government, institutional and private health care entities. We are equally committed to provide quality personalized medicines on a case by case basis, especially for patients with serious metastatic and oncology diseases where Pfizer breakthrough live-saving and well recognized medicines can substantially help — with God's will — increase patient's life expectancy and relief pain. Thus, in many cases we do all it takes to secure life saving medicines that are urgently required for individual critical cases even for free sometimes without looking into commercial benefit.
What is total market for Pfizer products in the Kingdom?
Over the years Pfizer Saudi Arabia has evolved from just a small operation in early 1960s to become one of the top three pharmaceutical players in the Kingdom as overall and a major contributor to the development of the Saudi pharmaceutical and health care industries, while we remain market leaders in each therapeutic area where we compete.
Would you please tell us about Pfizer manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia? What are the key benefits this project aims to deliver?
The new manufacturing facility is expected to mark the establishment of a foundation for many future partnerships. It is designed and positioned to be another cornerstone marking the development of pharmaceutical and health care industry in the Kingdom through bringing together many anticipated benefits including:
Medical Benefits
• Transferring technical expertise and knowhow of a knowledge-based industry to the local Saudi market
• Supplying Pfizer's well established quality pharmaceutical products and making them available for private, government and health care insurance sectors in the Kingdom
• Enhancing national medicinal security and accessibility
• Accelerating the availability of new medications in the Kingdom faster than ever
Economic benefits
• Underlining Saudi Arabia's efforts in attracting and facilitating world-class inward investment in the health care arena
• Enhancing commercial and economic development of the national economy
• Marking the diversification the non-oil-based industries and resources of national income
• Reducing the Kingdom's medicine imports and help saving national financial resources
Social benefits
•Creating employment opportunities for local manpower in Saudi Arabia
• Developing skills of local manpower in this knowledge-based and life science industry
What kind of medicines will be produced at KAEC plant? Will this plant only cater to the local market or will its products be exported to the other GCC countries?
The new manufacturing facility will produce a broad range of Pfizer solid dose medicines currently supplied to the Kingdom at the total production capacity of 18 million packs per year. We intend that the new facility will serve the growing needs of the Kingdom now and in the future. For us, investing in setting up a world-class manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia is not only a rewarding business opportunity, but also a commitment to the health and wellbeing of its people.
What is Pfizer's total investment in Saudi Arabia?
Pfizer has been committed to the development of the Saudi pharmaceutical industry in so many ways involving direct and indirect investment. A major part of its investment is made in transferring expertise and knowhow in a life science and knowledge-based industry. At the moment, our investment in Saudi Arabia runs into millions of dollars and we anticipate that this will grow as time goes.
How many Saudis are working with the Pfizer network in Saudi Arabia?
As many as we can. We have been welcoming skilled Saudi manpower to join Pfizer Saudi Arabia and we do invest heavily in their training and developing their skills further. A key objective of setting up a Pfizer manufacturing plant at KAEC is to offer quality employment opportunities to skilled Saudi talents together with transferring specialist expertise and knowledge to those local talents. No doubt, it will have a positive impact on our Saudization strategy and will help to increase the number of Saudi Arabian employees within Pfizer Saudi Arabia.
Does Pfizer have plants in other GCC countries?
Pfizer Saudi new manufacturing plant at KAEC is the first and the only such partnership that Pfizer has established in the GCC, and one that we hope is a foundation for the future.
What are the key features of Pfizer's research and development projects?
With an approach that harnesses its strengths to find the newest, most innovative and valuable medical solutions, Pfizer is prioritizing its R&D efforts in areas with the greatest scientific and commercial promise — immunology and inflammation, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and pain, and vaccines. The development of a pharmaceutical drug takes up to 15 years of hard work to be approved and manufactured. The costs of a drug development are estimated to range between one to two billion US dollars. This demonstrates the huge investment in terms of time, effort and finance incurred by pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer in developing new medicines and vaccines. Drug discovery requires both disease area and technology expertise. While most in the industry are constrained to primarily focus on one of those dimensions, Pfizer has the breadth and depth of research units and biotechnology units across R&D that frees us to realize the power and possibilities of these combinations to deliver high impact medicines for patients.
How Does Pfizer collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world?
At Pfizer, we are committed to supporting local communities, and finding innovative ways to share best practices, knowledge and skills. We also look into partnering with the Saudi government, MOH and SFDA to improve access to the medicines that the people of Saudi Arabia need. There are five main ways that health care professionals and providers help us to help patients:
— Discovering new medicines and studying how they work are key to helping patients live healthier lives.
— Input and advice from experienced health care professionals is critical to improving our medicines.
— Pfizer engages experienced health care professionals as speakers to educate their peers about health conditions and share scientific information about our medicines.
— Members of Pfizer's sales force meet with health care professionals in the office to discuss new and relevant information about our medicines.
— We are committed to conducting our work with health care professionals to the highest of ethical standards to ensure the integrity of these relationships.
Can you give us some details about Pfizer's involvement in CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities in Saudi Arabia?
We strongly believe in corporate social responsibility and its role in developing the whole community further and the industry in particular. We have been heavily involved in many high value initiatives aiming at serving the Saudi medical community. To this effect, we have supported the Saudi Hypertension Management Society (SHMS) for the period of five years continuously, and helped in bringing it from just an idea to a reality. We have been significantly engaged in supporting major scientific conference and meetings taking place in the Kingdom throughout the year. We also regularly provide quality summer professional training programs to local pharmaceutical science students to help leverage their skills and knowledge of the industry. We provide educational grants to government and institutional health care organizations. We are an active member in the pharmaceutical committee led by the Saudi Chambers of Commerce raising recommendations to help leverage professional practices. Pfizer Saudi Arabia has taken part in many initiatives aiming at raising awareness of smoking hazards in collaboration with the National Anti-Smoking Committee, MOH. Last but not least, we have been an indispensable member in professional bodies tasked with setting up national guidelines and national records for many disease areas, including the national neuropathic pain guidelines and the national Psoriasis record, etc. At the moment, Pfizer is engaged in devising a major awareness project on the diabetes complications and co-morbidity with cardiovascular disease and neuropathic pain. The project will be launched soon.
Counterfeit medicines are available in the global market. How does Pfizer tackle the menace?
To Begin with, patient safety is a major concern to Pfizer so we are ethically and professionally committed to report any possible direct and/or indirect side effects of our brands to the concerned bodies internally and externally within 24 hours. Counterfeit medicines are dangerous by their very nature — they are not produced under safe manufacturing conditions and they are not inspected by the regulatory authorities. Therefore, they pose a serious threat to patient health and safety. Recent research shows that counterfeiting of medicines is on the increase. Globally, counterfeit medicine business is worth in excess of $ 35 billion a year and it's predicted that at a growth rate of between 12-16 percent. At Pfizer, there is no higher priority than ensuring that every patient who purchases a Pfizer medicine receives an authentic product, one that is both safe and effective. To realize this goal, both industry and regulators must work cooperatively in partnership with government agencies, health care community, patients, and third-party stakeholders, to ensure that patients have a safe supply of medicines and that justice is served to those who put patients' lives at risk. During 2010, authorities from 53 countries seized almost 8.4 million tablets, capsules and vials of counterfeit Pfizer medicines. Many of the raids resulted from leads developed by Pfizer Global Security.
Pfizer has a team of experts who constantly assess new and existing technologies to identify those that will make it more difficult for those who counterfeit our medicines while enabling health care providers to distinguish authentic from counterfeit Pfizer medicines. Pfizer has also created a diversified international team to rapidly address product integrity issues as they arise and work proactively to stop them from occurring.
