Companies signed two contracts authorising Ibnsina Pharma to distribute 20+ stock-keeping units of life-saving diabetes care, among other products Ibnsina Pharma, Egypt's fastest-growing and second-largest pharmaceutical distributor, has signed two contracts with Novo Nordisk, leading manufacturer of insulin and haemophilia treatment, to distribute over 20 stock-keeping units of its diabetes care, haemophilia, and growth disorder products in Egypt on Tuesday. Following the contracts, Novo Nordisk will join a group of over 325 domestic and international suppliers who rely on Ibnsina Pharma to distribute their products across Egypt. "We are incredibly proud and excited by this new opportunity to distribute Novo Nordisk's life-saving diabetes care and haemophilia and growth disorder products across Egypt," said Mohsen Mahgoub, chairperson of Ibnsina. He added that the company's main objective is to leverage their distribution network to provide much-needed access to medication, and diabetes care products are essential in Egypt. Ibnsina Pharma invested EGP 2m in additional warehousing facilities, and allocated 28 specialised trucks to deliver Novo Nordisk's cold-chain products. As part of the conditions to attain these new contracts, Ibnsina Pharma also passed Novo Nordisk's due diligence and operational audit to meet international standards. "Our investment to accommodate these contracts is the first execution in our plan to invest EGP 700m in new sites and the expansion of Ibnsina Pharma's network over the next five years," Mahgoub said. He added, "this expansion was made possible by our successful IPO, which took place in the fourth quarter of 2017 and was 18 times oversubscribed." Globally, Egypt is one of the ten largest countries, in terms of population, where diabetes affects more than 7.8 million patients. Novo Nordisk currently holds over 60% of the insulin market share in Egypt. "Diabetes is soaring in Egypt with around 8 million Egyptians diagnosed with the disease in 2017, according to the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF)," said Hassan Fahmi, general manager of Novo Nordisk Egypt. "At Novo Nordisk, our main objective is to best serve Egyptians with diabetes and other chronic diseases in collaboration with all stakeholders. We are honoured to be in this partnership with Ibnsina Pharma to enable wider and more convenient access to our products through the nationwide distribution network of Ibnsina Pharma," he added.
