Genpharm is a leading regional pharmaceutical market access and marketing company focused mainly on niche therapeutics and diagnostics for rare genetic diseases. The company has partnered with multinational companies that have evidence-based and innovative drugs looking to expand into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The company operates through an experienced and dedicated team of medical science liaisons and key account managers. The company’s partnerships are based on long-term regional commercial agreements or in-licensing deals under the Genpharm brand.
Genpharm was established by the two influential Founders & Managing Partners, Karim Smaira and Kamel Ghammachi, whose leadership has been a consistent presence in the MENA pharmaceutical sector for over forty years. They both have successfully occupied several industry roles and managed large multinational pharmaceutical organizations in both regional and international functions.
Outshining with its Diverse Services
Genpharm offers its expertise to achieve fast market access for companies looking to expand into the Middle East region. Being the exclusive partner for pharmaceutical organizations, it offers every required service to its clients at the highest standards which include regulatory, medical and pharmacovigilance support, quality and logistics, market access (pricing and reimbursement). It also dedicates field staff for them to work closely with the key stakeholders on disease awareness, patient support programs, CME events, scientific meetings, advisory boards and expert panels.
Genpharm also offers consultancy services on market entry strategies for companies interested to set up a regional office or that simply want to understand the commercial potential of their portfolio and the best strategies to approach the Middle East market with.
Prominent Landmarks in Genpharm’s Journey
Genpharm was a simple entrepreneurial idea and a vision shared by the two founders that saw the light in 2012. Seeing a significant gap in the rare disease space in the Middle East, possessing the regional pharmaceutical expertise and a wide global network, they decided to turn this into an opportunity. With every new initiative, there are risks and many “nay-sayers”. This has been a constant motivation to set ambitious objectives and surpass them.
Genpharm was born out of the idea to become a market access provider for small pharmaceutical as well as biotech organizations with innovative products. The industry reputation of its experienced management, the strong brand identity acquired and the high quality of the work performed, attracted large leading corporations such as GSK, Sanofi and Novartis which embodied a validation for its business model and standards as well.
Genpharm’s work has been recognized by working references from its partners and also through several business and industry awards such as the “Best Pharmaceutical Market Access Company” and the “Best Pharmaceutical Marketing and Consultancy Company” in 2016 and 2017 by the MEA business awards.
Creating Eminence with its Core Values and Vivid Visualization
Genpharm believes that its core values have been its real driving force.
- Patient Care: It is focused on rare diseases, caring for the patient and their families are central to what we do. This is a key motivator that is used in our communication and our recruitment. We are usually the only hope that these patients have for a better life. This is the overarching motivation and the drive behind what Genpharm stands for.
- Innovation: Although, the product innovation comes from its partners, Genpharm innovates in the market solutions that it offers, particularly in the areas of market access, disease awareness, and diagnosis.
- Accountability: The company wishes its employees to be responsible and accountable for their actions. It believes that the organizational culture of ownership and entrepreneurial spirit is extremely difficult to maintain if employees don’t feel accountable.
- Integrity: Ethical standards and honesty are core values. Genpharm stays transparent internally and with its external stakeholders.
- Teamwork: Joining experiences, skills and sharing information helps them achieve more together as a group than lone individual.
Elevating Environment at Genpharm
Being a start-up business, Genpharm is fully focused on maintaining an interactive work environment and offers its employees learning on the job through hands-on experience. Moreover, it tends to look internally for promotions which are very motivating. Today, its mid-level management is composed exclusively of internal talents. Genpharm maintains a very open environment for discussion and feedback with management practicing an open-door policy. The Management team likes to emphasize the fact that, “If you want to lead people, lead them from behind”. This has led to several internal promotions, particularly for those that believe that “leadership is what you do when your manager is not around”.
Future Potential
Genpharm is all set to continue its growth trajectory with several new collaborations, capitalizing on its expertise and recent track record. The company believes that the current research and technological breakthroughs will certainly lead to new advancements in disease management and even to curative therapies creating opportunities for its business development appetite.
“We are growing organically at an average of 23% per year. We see no reason why we cannot continue this aggressive growth and complete our current expansion plans. We believe we have an unlimited potential for profitable growth”, asserts the duo confidently.
