- We believe that the harmonization of administrative, quality and clinical requirements in the GCC countries and standardized evaluation schedule would be helpful.
Franc Vives, Chief International Officer from Cinfa, discusses the emerging trends in the management of chronic diseases, the developing drug market in the Mena region and the company’s strategic growth plans
The Mena region has a significant increase in chronic diseases and the demand for its treatments, which is due to the growing prevalence of diseases such as high blood pressure, dyslipidemia and diabetes. This growing demand is not only due to increasing health challenges, but also reflects the progress in health systems, including more awareness of illness, highly qualified medical specialists and improved access to effective treatment options.
The new Cinfa production plant, Neo, will double its production capacity to 200 million medication per year
As part of its commitment in the region, Cinfa offers high quality treatments that are tailored to the needs of medical experts and patients. For this purpose, the company has strongly invested in a new work, Neo to double the production capacity and to introduce industries -4.0 technologies. In addition, Cinfa increases its F&E efforts in important therapeutic areas such as type -2 -diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and neurology.
In an exclusive interview, Franc Vives, Chief International Officer Cinfa, speaks to Health Magazine About these developments and the continuous commitment of the company to improve the access of the healthcare system in the region.
Franc Vives, Chief International Officer, Cinfa
Which emerging trends in connection with chronic diseases do you observe in the region? What are the factors that contribute to this?
Changes to the lifestyle have led to reduced physical activity and increased consumption of processed foods, with key factors causing chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, dyslipidemia and diabetes. At the same time, both the diagnosis and the treatment rates for these diseases have increased. This result can be attributed to the progress in the health systems of the region, including campaigns to sensitize diseases, the health authorities, highly qualified medical personnel, excellent hospital management systems and the availability of a variety of effective health solutions.
How high is the current state of the pharmaceutical market in the region and how will it be forecast in the coming years?
Over the next five years, Cinfa expects a market increase of more than 7%in the region, which is mainly driven by improved regulatory processes, better patient access files and growth of the health infrastructure and the participation of the private sector.
With this foresight, we have increased our development, production and sales capacity with a new manufacturing system- a facility based on the concept of Industry 4.0 in which all processes are integrated, digitized and automated And its different manufacturing phases.
The production processes are vertically integrated so that the materials move down over four floors, reduce horizontal transfers and prevent cross -contamination. This design ensures the highest standards for security and excellence.
Tell us about Cinfas growing business in the region and your future plans
In recent years, we have achieved consistent growth of private sales in the MEA region in recent years, which is due to a remarkable success in areas such as cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory therapies. The products of Cinfa in areas such as neuropsychiatry, men’s health care and stomach intestine therapy increase and are expected to play a key role in promoting corporate growth in the coming years. Our private sales in the Mena region will exceed over 40 million US dollars in 2024. In addition, we have already teamed up with the public sector in Saudi Arabia and the VAE, where Cinfa brands are widespread in many state hospitals in both countries.
Our new neo-work for the development, production and distribution of medication is a state-of-the-art facility that is supported by more than $ 44 million in investments and four years of committed efforts. This advanced facility in Spain will double the production capacity of Cinfa to 200 million medical units per year.
Could you share some of the new F&E areas and innovations on which Cinfa concentrated?
One of Cinfa’s primary f & e focuses are type -2 -diabetes mellitus, a widespread disease that has increased worldwide in recent years and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. We actively work within two important therapeutic groups: DPP-4 inhibitors and SGLT2 inhibitors.
We would also like to emphasize our ongoing efforts and investments in research and development that focus on the heart cycle, the most common cause of death worldwide. In particular, we are working on a number of more effective and secure antithrombotic medicines such as platelet aggregation inhibitors, direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIS) and direct factor -xa inhibitors that aim to treat and prevent blood clots in veins and prevent stroke and embolism.
And last but not least, we have a F&E line in neurology.
How do you see the current regulatory environment in the region and what recommendations would you suggest?
Today, the regulatory framework in the region is more and more common with the standards and requirements of the most important supervisory authorities such as EMA, UsfdA, MHRA, PMDA and Swissmedic, which are highly viewed when evaluating new drug applications.
Although Cinfa is aware that every country wants to take care of the interest and health of its citizens Countries and standardized evaluation schedule would be helpful.
What initiatives are underway to increase local production within the GCC, and what are plans from Cinfa in this regard?
In accordance with the mission of Cinfa, to provide patients to authentic and accessible health solutions, we take active steps to localize product production in the MENA region. This initiative will accelerate the product supply and make newly introduced products more affordable.
Are there in the PPP initiatives region and are they part of these initiatives?
Cinfa has just started fertile cooperation with the Ministry of Health in the United Arab Emirates by including many of its products in the uniform procurement sign. This offer will cover the needs of patients who are examined in several institutional hospitals. In addition, Cinfa extends this cooperation to scientific activities and congresses.