Bayer returns to Yemen [Archives:2006/932/Local News]
SANA'A, March 22 ) The National Trading Company (Natco), a large corporation owned by Said Anam, held a ceremony Wednesday, March 22 at the Movenpick Hotel to mark the return of Germany's Bayer Healthcare to the Yemeni market after a more than 20-year absence.
Dr. Gamal Mikhail, head of Bayer Healthcare, explained the reason behind the absence of company activities in the past two decades as being a wrong impression of company leaders about Yemen's investment atmosphere.
Natco Deputy Managing Director Mohammed Al-Kawi referred to exchange visits between Natco and Bayer that served to attract Bayer's attention: “Our will to deal with Bayer is due to the fact that it is one of the world's largest medicine producers.”
He added that talks with Bayer began in 1999, resulting in an agreement to award Natco exclusive rights to import the company's products to Yemen. He appreciated Mikhail's role in convincing Bayer to resume exporting its products to Yemen.
“Bringing Bayer back to Yemen was a success for Yemeni-German relations and for Natco, to do business with famous world companies like Bayer.” Based on its success in other countries, Al-Kawi expects Bayer will be very successful in the Yemeni market.
Mikhail said Bayer's main objective is to provide Yemeni patients with high quality medications that have been tested and improved their positive affects. He also pointed to Bayer's future plans in Yemen: “We have ambitious plans. We are planning to improve doctors' skills by providing them with educational systems to improve their scientific knowledge and inviting them to attend conferences and symposiums abroad to put them in touch with the most modern scientific research.”
At a press conference organized for this occasion, Mikhail confirmed that the company has taken measures to prevent faking its medicines and that the first medicine shipment will arrive in Yemen in June.
Eman Ali, an official from the Emerging Markets in the Middle East, said Bayer has studied Yemen's markets to learn its medicine needs and will export different medicines to Yemen such as aspirin, Levitra and Cluscobay.
More than 300 key medical opinion leaders in Yemen, besides the mayor of Sana'a and several diplomats, as well as Yemeni officials and businessmen, attended the ceremony, during which Bayer announced the launch of a group of medications.
Bayer is known for its discovery of aspirin, as well as discovery of medicine overcoming male impotence. Represented by 350 companies on five continents, the company employs 93,700 employees worldwide, according to its December 31, 2005 statistics.
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