Dr Ahmed El Hakim, the Senior Manager of Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) Middle East Arab Group, recently defended the drug company’s lackluster worldwide Exubera inhaled insulin sales.
Downplaying the diabetes drug’s widely known poor worldwide launch, El Hakim explained to ArabianBusiness.com that “this is the price you pay as an innovator - the concept [of using inhaled insulin] has not yet been established, and while we are now establishing the concept of using this convenient therapy, sales have not been up to the expectations of many people.”
A study published in the World Health Organization’s journal, the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, concluded that diabetes was a growing problem in Saudi Arabia, citing the following factors:
- A high prevalence of obesity;
- A diet rich in carbohydrates (e.g., bread, dates, sugar, and potatoes);
- Lack of exercise; and
- Genetic factors
At the time the study was reported in 1998, it found that there was more than a 300% increase in Type 2 diabetics older than 30 in Central Saudi Arabia, from 6% in 1982 to more than 18.22% in 1998. Pfizer’s El Hakim told a reporter that the country’s now approximately 25% of Saudis are diabetics.
That’s a huge potential market for the pharmaceutical company’s diabetes and cardiovascular drugs.
