Minapharm is leading the health-care industry in
Egypt toward biotechnology and advanced therapy
medicinal products
Dr. Wafik Bardissi
—
Chairman & CEO,
Minapharm
“Egypt’s pharmaceutical sector
is seeing increasing attention
from investors and, starting in
2018, we foresee growing stability for businesses capable of
adjusting to the new economics
of a changing industry,” states
Dr. Wafik Bardissi, chairman
and CEO of Minapharm Pharmaceuticals, one of the leading
pharmaceutical companies in
Egypt and the Middle East.
His company is at the forefront of this changing industry.
“The global approach to unmet
medical needs is shifting from
small molecules to complex genetically engineered products
and next-generation advanced
therapy medicinal products
(ATMPs).
While the focus in Egypt is
still on small molecules, Minapharm was an early recognizer
of the shift in the health-care
industry and embarked on a
transition towards large, complex molecules ready to bridge
to next-generation medicines,”
he explains.
The company has long spearheaded Egypt’s pharmaceutical industry. It established the
country’s first privately owned
factory and has over 60 years of
experience and regional leadership in the sector.
“We now cover a broad spectrum of medicines. We partner with other global leaders
to manufacture and market
branded products and first-to-launch galenic formulations, as
well as biopharmaceuticals, and
we make over 150 products for
numerous medical specializations,” details Bardissi.
In 2001, Minapharm entered
into a joint venture with Rhein
Biotech in Germany, to establish Rhein-Minapharm, the
first research and development
(R&D), and manufacturing biopharmaceutical facility in Egypt,
Africa and the Middle East.
Minapharm further consolidated its biotechnology business model and global market
position in 2010, by acquiring
the Berlin-based ProBioGen, the
leading contract development
and manufacturing organization
that focuses on cell-line engineering.
Since then, as well as working
with Minapharm, “ProBioGen
has free reign to expand its business and strengthen its solid
customer base, which includes
large pharmaceutical players
from across Europe, the US and
the Far East,” says Bardissi.
Minapharm advanced from a
regional technology-driven manufacturer of affordable complex
medicines, into a global provider
of intelligent technologies for
the biotechnology industry at
large.
“The establishment of a hybrid bioengineering R&D community of Egyptian and German
scientists allows us to constantly
innovate, with synergistic projects driving technology transfer
between Minapharm and ProBioGen“
“We have invested in new
state-of-the-art facilities in Cairo
and Berlin, and will continue to
venture into the future of biotechnology and joint projects to
develop new immunotherapies
for the world” he adds.
Minapharm’s biotech business model serves its mission
— Innovation Made Affordable
— as it allows the company to
cover the full value chain from
research to launch, giving it a
competitive advantage in pricing
in Egypt. “We have developed,
manufactured and launched
several complex recombinant
products, in one case leading to
a six fold reduction in the price
of an imported competing product. We are also developing new
immunotherapeutics, which are
normally expensive, but we can
market them at affordable prices, as our chain of manufacture
goes straight from cell to protein,” notes Bardissi.
He believes that partnerships
with other leading pharmaceutical companies in Europe and
the US would help achieve this
faster:
“Cooperation at a technology-transfer level with international businesses is needed
to exploit the opportunities in
Egypt and neighboring markets,
and bring even more biotechnological success“
