Healthcare as a whole is growing at over 7% year on year. The global pharmaceuticals market was worth $934.8 billion in 2017 and will reach $1170 billion in 2021, growing at 5.8%, according to a recent pharma market research report by The Business Research Company. Comparatively, this is an accelerated pace to 5.2% before 2017 but is slower than medical equipment and healthcare services. 

Dr. Nader Khedr, Chairman of the Board, ConsuMed and President and CEO of NovoSci, and President & CEO of Promo Pharma marketing which are regional pharmaceutical players in the Middle East and Africa.

NovoSci represents more than 18 international pharmaceutical companies in the region with a diversified portfolio and interest and it is currently operating in UAE, Egypt, Oman, Lebanon, South Africa, Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan.

Helping patients live in a better way

Dr. Nader explains, “ConsuMed is an Italian based company in Milano and we are exposed to a lot of innovative patented products that help patients to take the medications or the supplements in a better way for better compliance and availability of a product. We are searching for good patents in Europe, advanced, innovative molecules that help patients live in a better way. So we brought more than eleven innovative products to the middle east through our network. We are available in different countries like Egypt, Yemen, UAE, Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. So we brought these products and are looking forward to bringing a lot more,” he says.

A gap in the market

Dr. Nader explains, “When I started working at NovoSci in 2015, we discovered a gap in the market that, small to medium size companies might not be able to come to the region because of different reasons like not knowing the market, or the region where you are in, or lack of availability of investment there so we managed to close this gap by making it one-stop for them between the company and different countries which the potential of the countries along with 14 - 15 countries in the Middle East and North Africa totally gather together is really huge. However, each individual country might not be interested to come in. So that was the gap that we found and this is the business model that we do. And since we started now we have more than 74 companies. We have more than 120 products and we just took 10 -15 % of our potential in the market post the launch, so hopefully a lot of more products to come,” he says.

Continue bringing good products for the patients to live their lives much better

Dr. Nader throws light on his entrepreneurial journey, “So far it's fantastic, I am happy and enjoying the business, I am enjoying developing the business, bringing something new to the patients, something good to the patients. When I hear testimonials from the patient on WhatsApp or feedback from a physician that his patient is better, it really gives me joy and pleasure that I did something good. We will hopefully continue doing the same, and continue bringing good products for the patients to live their lives much better. So the entrepreneurial trip was so far so good and  I started a long time ago like 5-6 years ago. These are the toughest 6 years as a startup business so I hope the rest is much better for us,” he says.

COVID will stay a little bit longer than we have expected

Dr. Nader, “What we hear and what we read about the COVID-19 scenarios and possible future scenarios actually that it might be staying for a long time. So we have to plan and paint our future strategies according to the worst scenarios. We take it in our group of companies that it is to stay and we have to manage accordingly, so we have started different products that suit COVID-19 which I believe that 65-70% of the companies have started doing so if we didn't already. At the same time, we are still continuing to bring products that we see as a potential benefit for the patient. I believe yes it will stay a little bit longer than we have expected and companies really have to manage the scenario based on their strategies that these circumstances will stay a little bit longer. Different strategies are there that can help them manage their company in a better way,” he says.

(Edited by Rabia Mistry Mulla)