Innovation medicines will require innovative strategy to ensure patient’s access to medicines. There is a need to start shuffling the status quo of what’s needed to make things more legible and accessible to public health. The name of the game is how we can leverage on the current situation to move forward with the approval of these highly expensive medicines and treatments to our patients. We have reached a demanding level of administrative, academic opportunities of diseases and treatments that require a new approach and innovation solutions to ensure the availability of treatments and medicines to communities at affordable prices. Taking into consideration the budget constraints at all levels of stakeholders. Thus, It is a chain of responsibility that starts from the very early phase of product innovation until it reaches the market. How to engage different stakeholders to meet, to discuss the new reality, to leverage on the current services, to partner together in shaping the policies and upgrade the existing systems, to engage NGO’s and patient’s advocacy groups, to be ready and aligned with the upcoming new class of medicines and treatments including vaccines in the coming years. How can we make this happen in the current financial and economic crisis that has hit most of the markets? How can we engage payers, physicians and different stakeholders to work hand in hand to ensure treatment’s availability? How can we leverage on the social responsibilities projects provided by most reputable international pharmaceutical firms? How can we do things differently? Where are we with the digitalization? How can we INNOVATE new ideas? It is our time to lead these changes to make it a better healthy world for next generation. It is time to innovate new approaches

Deal Making is not an easy piece of cake. While it starts with active scouting, it is more relevant to follow the actual process flow and also active networking. The whole process starts with identifying gaps in product portfolio and then Sourcing and qualifying 3’rd party partners. In my 17 plus years of direct Pharma experience, I have found that Trust is the most important parameter in deal making and usually it grows with time. Also, to build trust and reach a preferred partner status, it is important to work together like a joint family concept. Another important aspect of Innovation and Partnerships lies with right communication. When we communicate well both internally and externally, we should clearly guide the reader or the team member with details. For example, in my MBA thesis, I was able to devise a ‘filing to market review (FTMR)” project wherein we mapped each process owner in terms of complexity and was able to reduce target launch dates by months in advance. Attached presentation is just a snapshot of what works well and what does not. Timing is also another important part of deal making. Even though we may have the best commercial case and molecule identified, if we are not respecting each other’s time and working towards a common goal, then we can easily fail. So, Innovation and partnerships in deal making is all about trust, timing and mutual growth.

All over the world, women are shattering glass ceilings and proving that they have the power to be successful business leaders. While the battle for gender equality in the West has been effective in recent years, it is still not easy for women to start up their own business. Its even more difficult for women living in the Middle East; where entrepreneurship is still considered a man’s territory exclusively. A person’s journey to success lies not only in the wallet, but in the mastering of business competencies. Something that can be proven by Ms. Oudeh who wanted to advance her career and change her life. Despite gender stereotypes and societal discrimination, she dedicated her strength to her craft and managed to earn personal and professional success unprecedent to other Jordanian women. Lacking sufficient academic background, adhering to very strict taboos and prohibitions are some of the major obstacles women in the Middle East are met with whatever and whenever they set out to achieve their dreams. With determination, self-motivation and eagerness to learn, Oudeh was able to transform her “tight rope” into an expanse of endless possibilities. She seized the opportunities presented to her.With choosing to explore Germany and Switzerland, Oudeh will speak of the obstacles and difficulties she had to endure to reach her goals and become one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in the Middle East.

The Market Access (MA) term was first introduced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to define the competing relation between the domestic and the imported products of a country. The WTO defines MA as a set of conditions, tariff and non-tariff measures, agreed by WTO members for the entry of specific goods into their markets. Pharmaceutical market access is achieving the optimal price for a product or service and/or maximum reimbursement for the approved (Market Authorisation) target population with no restrictions on funding for the medical technology. As a result of these challenges current market access hurdles for medicinal products became more diversified in the last 2 decades and they can be simply categorized under two major types based on payer needs and capabilities:  1) Delaying access (long review processes, real life data requirements, cost-benefit assessment for smaller patient groups, Prioritization in Good Manufacturing Practice audits before registration submissions, unscheduled Review Committee Meetings, Regional/Hospital reviews, outcomes based managed entry agreements) and Controlling demand (local reimbursement guidelines, import license renewals/limits, forced localization) 2) Increasing negotiation power for better pricing (cost-effectiveness and budget impact analysis, joint procurement, central tendering, hospital and retail separate budgeting, hospital formulary, efficiency analysis, Therapeutic equivalency band, Joint Health Technology Assessment(HTA) initiatives, unofficial price data sharing, reference pricing, financial based managed entry agreements). In summary, price pressure will continue on budget holders and known method of business, economy and sciences to be used by them in order to increase efficiency in decision making, ÅŸayers will increase and access will be delayed inevitably, equity in access will remain problematic because of reimbursement filters by different local and regional payers, and across countries, lack of coordination among layers/regions/countries is obvious, but efforts will continue to harmonization, financial risk will shift more to pharma companies and increase access hurdles. End last but not least, hurdles are now starting before registration in many low affordability markets with other method of supply restrictions (GMP, import quotas, forced localization).

Marketing is considered as the art of creating new value that is unprecedented for the consumer. Its goal is to provide a better standard of living for society and to create a long-term relationship with consumers. Pharmaceutical marketing is promoting the sale of pharmaceutical drugs. Customer service standards your pharmacy should aspire to meet. There are two major steps to be able to have a productive pharmacy. First you have to be patient and committed to this business. Second you have to know how important to deal with each customer and please him through giving your full care and attention. And by giving extra feedback about the item purchased. Change your way of thinking to follow the new generation.  However, customer service should be approached as a philosophy, a founding principle, where the pharmacy staff can fall back to when they face challenging situations. There are four basic principles to the provision of great pharmacy service.

During drug approval process, bioequivalence studies can be officially waived under specific conditions which are known as a biowaiver. Bio equivalency assessment is an essential step during the registration of a new drug product and reformulation of an already present dosage form. The bioequivalence studies require the involvement of human subjects which represents several constrains for its performance. In vitro testing namely solubility, permeability and dissolution evaluation represents an efficient widely accepted avenue for pharmaceutical products qualification for biowaivers. Drugs are classified based on their solubility and permeability into four classes which represent the scientific bases for the biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS). On the basis of the solubility and gastrointestinal permeability of drug substance, BCS has been widely implemented for waiving bioequivalence studies. Thus, biowaivers-based BCS currently is a vital, economical and feasible tool for generic products legal approval. The present article reviews the benefits of biowaivers, the criteria and requirements for its conductance and the current state in the market.

Vitamin D includes a group of lipid-soluble compounds with a four-ringed cholesterol backbone existing in two major forms: vitamin D2, and vitamin D3. The deficiency of vitamin D is a worldwide epidemic, yet unfortunately remains largely unrecognized by the majority of citizens. The aim of our study, which is an observational, cross sectional, community-based survey conducted during the month of April 2018 in Beirut, Lebanon on 508 participants is to investigate participants’ level of knowledge about vitamin D and their level of awareness of its health benefits. Subjects are divided into three  categories  were asked to complete a Vitamin D knowledge survey that assessed knowledge on  aspects  such as Vitamin D sources, health benefits and recommended intake. Knowledge questions were calculated by giving 1 point if the answer is correct, and 0 if the answer is wrong. A statistical significant relationship was observed when comparing the percentage of perception and knowledge of source of vitamin D of students and graduated to workers (p=0.01, 0.00), and it was observed when comparing the faculty courses as a source of hearing about vitamin D between students and workers (p=0.00). As a result, this study suggests that vitamin D knowledge is significantly related to the level of education of participants. Since this study is the first one to date that, assess the vitamin D knowledge of Lebanese population, it may be used as a basis for the development of health promotion programs aimed at decreasing the rate of vitamin D deficiency.