Alpharma to open office in Dubai

Alpharma, a general pharmaceutical company, will open a regional office in Dubai to cover the Middle East and North Africa.

It will soon start registering 25 medicines at the UAE Ministry of Health, said Anne Lutzhoft, its director of international operations. It already has 300 global products.

"In the UAE, the registration of some medicines was postponed until the company's name was changed. In other Gulf countries, the registrations were already filed," said Dr. Ehab Amin, its regional director.

The company plans to launch around 75 products in five years, he added.

A manufacturer of generic liquid and topical pharmaceuticals in the U.S. and a supplier of generic pharmaceuticals in selec-ted European markets, the company has been in the Middle East for 13 years and is restructuring operations abroad under the new name - Alpharma.

"This new operation represents the activities of our acquired companies Dumex of Denmark and Cox of the UK," said Terje Aarbogh, its vice-president for sales and marketing.

Aarbogh valued the Middle East market at $4.5 billion a year with a 10 per cent growth compared to 12 per cent growth in Asia and 6 per cent globally.

The firm's largest Middle East markets, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, are worth more than $1.2 billion, $1 billion and almost $1 billion, respectively, said Amin.

The UAE, Lebanon, Qatar and Bahrain are estimated at $89 million each.

"We are opening the office because the Middle East and the Far East are the fastest growing markets. In the past, overall management of the region was undertaken abroad. The office will be opened in months and in a year all details will be in order," said Aarbogh.

"This is a competitive market and in the future we will include its needs in our pipeline. But we will not manufacture medicines here because it is too early to decide on the matter. We have to build the infrastructure first."

Amin expected Alpharma to continue participating in GCC government pharmaceutical tenders. It has won a two-year government tender in Iran.

Alpharma's product prices are 15 to 30 per cent less than the originators and are sold at unified prices in this area, Amin added.