In a promotional
video introducing itself, Hikma, Jordan’s iconic pharmaceutical company, starts
with the phrase: It’s simple.
Indeed, it is. It can be simplified as a company
which started with a dream by its founder, the late Samih Darwazah, who
established and turned it over the years into the biggest drug maker in the
Arab world and a respected multi-billion dollar international company which
employs more than 8,000 people around the world.
اضافة اعلان
His two sons, Said and Mazen, continued the journey
and expanded its outreach to new markets, building on their father’s respected
legacy.
Last month, His Majesty King Abdullah inaugurated
the company’s new Middle East and North Africa headquarters in Amman. In his
remarks at the event, he “stressed the importance of the pharmaceutical sector
for the national economy”, noting that “pharmaceutical industries are among the
priority sectors of the Economic Modernization Vision for the upcoming 10
years”.
The King “lauded
Hikma Pharmaceuticals as one of the
leading national companies in the pharmaceutical sector”.
Mazen Darwazah, Hikma’s executive vice chairman and
president of Hikma MENA, said during the event that the company “plans to
establish a regional research and development hub in Salt, which will enable
the company to outsource R&D capabilities to the region and the world”.
“Hikma Pharmaceuticals operates 32 manufacturing
plants and seven major R&D centers in the US, Europe, and the MENA,
including two in Jordan,” he said.
The story does not end here, of course. There is a
lesson in it for Jordan and Jordanian entrepreneurs to learn.
A look at the founder’s career can easily show why
and how such a pharmaceutical plant evolved into a giant. Samih Darwazeh had
the vision, the knowledge, the right partners and talented successors who
believed in his dream, which may have sounded far-fetched or been met with
skepticism in the 1980s.
This is exactly how business should be run, and this is exactly what Jordan needs: industries that export products demanded in overseas markets to bring in hard currency and hire more people.
Quoting the
Financial Times’ profile of the visionary businessman, his academic profile (a
degree from the American University of Beirut and a Fulbright scholarship at
the St Louis College of Pharmacy, before joining US drug maker, Eli Lilly) gave
him enough strength to sow “the seeds of his future career”.
In his business, Darwazeh exhibited a profound
understanding of the target markets, and decided to focus on low-cost generic
medicines to meet the region’s demands.
This is exactly how business should be run, and this
is exactly what Jordan needs: industries that export products demanded in
overseas markets to bring in hard currency and hire more people. If we look at
rich countries, this is the very recipe that they have adopted to turn into
tigers.
According to Mazen Darwazah, “Hikma contributes
approximately 5 percent of Jordan’s total national exports and nearly 75
percent of pharmaceutical exports”; “it has a 10 percent share of the Jordanian
pharmaceutical market and a $370 million economic value flowing from it to the
Jordanian economy”.
The top executive said that in 2021, Hikma “exported
$392 million worth of pharmaceutical products from Jordan to global markets,
expecting exports to grow in 2022 to surpass $465 million”.
Jordan has never lacked the brains. The belief that
Jordanians are the country’s best asset is evident in the success story of
Hikma.
Hikma translates in Arabic as “wisdom”. We need such
wisdom to take off in many aspects of our life as Jordanians. One could learn from
Hikma.
Khalid Dalal is a former advisor at the Royal Hashemite Court, former director of
media and communication at the Office of His Majesty King Abdullah, and works
currently as a senior advisor for media, strategic communication, PR,
international cooperation, and business development locally, regionally, and
globally. [email protected]
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