INTO AFRICA

Johnson & Johnson goes big on tackling Ebola

Over the course of his almost 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Joaquin Duato has witnessed some big and remarkable breakthroughs. The first atypical antipsychotic that changed the treatment of schizophrenia, medications that turned HIV from a death sentence to a chronic disease and treatments that transformed the lives of patients with arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and prostate cancer rank among his career highlights.

“I was discussing today that in the 20th century alone, life expectancy has increased about 35 years,” the Spanish-born American citizen recalls.

“Big contributors to these 35 years of additional life expectancy are medicines. I feel proud of that, because I cannot think of any other human progress comparable to adding 35 years of life.” But in such a Research & Development (R&D) focussed industry, the chairman of Fortune 500 giant Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) $32 billion pharmaceutical business does not focus on the achievements of the past for long, particularly with other health threats still looming large.

In West Africa, the drug veteran has turned his attention to the world’s largest ever Ebola epidemic, while more locally in the GCC, he sees opportunities in surging diabetes rates and increasing government spending.

All that while he looks to maintain the unit’s position as the fastest growing top 10 pharmaceutical player in the US, Europe and Japan.

“We have problems today like Alzheimer’s, which is a plague in the ageing population. We are yet to find a cure for cancer and we still have a way to go in mental health,” he says. “So I still feel like there are patients waiting and there is so much more to do.”

TACKLING DIABETES

Duato’s visit to Johnson & Johnson’s Dubai Healthcare City hub comes at a particularly promising time for those in the GCC healthcare sector.

More affordable treatment, lifestyle-related diseases and increasing insurance penetration are projected to increase the size of the GCC healthcare market to $69.4 billion by 2018, a CAGR of 12 per cent from the $39.4 billion seen in 2013, according to investment bank Alpen Capital.

Describing the region as having economic growth similar to an emerging market, with the stability and legal and regulatory framework of a developed one, the chairman says that J&J sees opportunities from the perspective of both business and healthcare.

“What we have in the Middle East are markets that are growing double digit,