Healthcare Sector in Saudi Arabia: Mohammed Bin Moammer Presents Medical Company KBSCO

Interview with Mohammed Bin Moammer, CEO of KBSCO

What is your overview of the sector, especially in light of the effects of the global pandemic?

We are a medical company established in 1976 and we are based in Riyadh. We have branches in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia and also in Jeddah in the western side of Saudi Arabia. We started as a small company with one clinic or medical complex back in the 70s. Through the years, we have evolved. We went through many shifts because back in the 70s, the government was trying to organize the new regulations meeting international standards. Now, Saudi Arabia is one of the best implementers for all of the international standards in all kinds of businesses. Medical healthcare has a great history in Saudi Arabia. Established from zero, now, Saudi Arabia is one of the best healthcare providers with the best pharmaceutical companies. Saudi Arabia is the biggest in the region of the Gulf countries. It contains about 60% to 65% of the population. It is an open country for trade and manufacturing now with the government supporting shifting this country with Vision 2030 to be a productive country in terms of imports and exports. So, this is something that we take advantage of. We want to have healthcare services that are very qualified and improved and continue the productivity and improvement of the healthcare sectors in all ways including medical devices and in human resources in terms of physicians, nurses, and all hospital staff. In order to match all of that, we need to have qualified pharmaceutical and medications for the patients because this is the last part of the healthcare process. We are lucky because we work with EIPICO which is the biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer in not only Egypt but in all the Middle East countries. We started with a small portion with three medications almost in 1987 about 35 years ago as a full agent for them. Now, we have reached around 40 kinds of medications in 2020. We are working to register more medications to be added value to what we have approved and registered with the Saudi FDA products. We also supply medical devices. We are partnered with Sonka, a great Chinese company. Also, we are a full agent for Keito, the Spanish medical devices company. We are working with both very well. We are expanding our business. We have been in a relationship with them outside of the contract and agreement because we deal with each other as a family. We have to maintain the win-win situation for both. There is no conflict, but if there is, we always find a solution for the conflicts because we have to have the flexibility to keep this relationship going. With the expansion with the support of the government, we are looking for new partners to open pharmaceutical factories, but not for production of the end materials with the medicine. We are looking for raw materials for the pharmaceutical companies. In Saudi Arabia, we have so many factories for pharmaceutical, but this quantity of pharmaceutical is lacking raw materials factories. We are trying to be part of that because we face a lot of issues with the international support of raw materials for the manufacturing of medications. This is continuous and with the Coronavirus pandemic issue, Vitamin C faced a huge issue around the world because there are only four or five raw materials factories. They work 24 hours and they cannot compete or keep up with the market needs for the patients. So, we will try to take advantage of this as a new strategy. We must solve the major issues for the raw material for the requirements of the high volume of medications needed. This is the new section we will add to our company profile. Things are going well. We have increased every year around 10% to 15%. We survived the Coronavirus crisis last year. We are one of the few companies that saw an increase in generating profits and our sales margin because there is more awareness from the population regarding healthcare issues. Before, nobody cared about healthcare. They just went to the doctor if they got sick. But now, in the international society all the kids now have started to be aware of the germs and diseases, etc. That gives us a chance for free promotion and education for the healthcare sector.

What types of products and services do you provide at KBSCO?

We provide all kinds of medications. Two of our products is part of the MAJORE and Critical Coronavirus protocol called Dexamethasone and Cevitil 1gm (Vitamin C). It is an IV injection. We saw an increase of around 300% of this kind of IV injection. We are following international requirements for the COVID-19 protocol for medications. We provide antibiotics. We provide many kinds of tablets. We have almost 40 kinds of medications and we cover almost all kinds of medication. Our focus now for 2022 to 2023 is to have the eyedrops and the ear drops. We used to do it before but we cut it. Now, we have come back to it to see how we can expand the eyedrops. Saudi Arabia is a very hot country and a very dry country. The sun just burns everything. Through study, we made a strategy to focus more and open a new product line for the eyedrops and the ear drops as well.

What kind of medical devices do you provide?

Medical healthcare has a great history in Saudi Arabia. Established from zero, now, Saudi Arabia is one of the best healthcare providers with the best pharmaceutical companies.

We are one of the only ones in Saudi Arabia to focus on this. Now, we have almost 3,000 machines in pharmaceutical stores to take blood pressure, height, weight, body fat, body fat mass index, heart rate beating, passed on WHO references, etc. This is part of Vision 2030 to get people to care more about their health and exercise more. This is what will reduce the pressure on the healthcare providers, especially the government sector, from protecting people before things happen or before they get sick. We are the only one working with Sonka and Keito company factories. We have been working with them for almost 16 years. We expanded our business within the past two years with the Coronavirus issues. This has opened people’s eyes and has made them understand how healthcare can be predicted before it happens. It is family medication and promotion of education. More people now care about their height, their weight, their body fat, their blood pressure. These chronic diseases will start to have more serious issues in conditions and issues in your body. Now, we deal with some of the Air Force in the government because our devices are very well defined and very accurate. Most pilots before they take off must go through our devices. In the past, they measured it manually, but now it is done electronically. We have two or three bases now that have implemented our devices.

As part of Vision 2030, are you seeing more of a shift towards preventive healthcare and education?

One of the main components of Vision 2030 is to give more education, to give more awareness, to protect people. When things happen, it is over. When you get a chronic disease, there is no way to go back. So, they are trying to keep a step ahead and to give awareness. Now, I can see the difference in Saudi Arabia. There are so many parks now. There are so many new plants planted for better oxygen. There are places where you can run and exercise. Before, we did not have any of this. Two years ago, it was very hard to just walk in the street. But nowadays, in all areas in all cities, you could see it and you could feel the change. It is a very fast change. It is hard to catch up with. There are no excuses for you not to exercise.

What is your competitive advantage? What makes you different from your competitors?

We are at the top of the competitors because we offer good quality medications. Our partners produce to 27 European and American countries. We went through all the Saudi FDA requirements which are based on the American FDA requirements and based on the European FDA standards. This is very tough and very competitive because the American standard is different than the European standard. If a factory can meet both that means they have a high quality of product. Middle Eastern medications do not compete with us. Our price is supposed to be reasonable for the users or the patients. We have good quality, a great price, plus a variety of medications. This gives us very strong advantages and keeps us on the top. Even the government now is focused more on reducing the cost of the bill of healthcare services based on pharmaceutical. If you are qualified and registered and meeting all the very tough requirements, you will be approved in Saudi Arabia. Now, we have increased almost 20% with the government tenders based on our quality, based on our history in the Saudi market, and based on our prices, as well. We are now side by side with our partners working on a daily basis to improve the quality and keep it to the highest level. When you are in the top, it is very hard to keep it up. So, you have to be focused all the time. This gives us some pressure, but on the other side, it gives us some great advantages compared to others.

What partners do you work with internationally and regionally?

Our biggest partner and oldest partner is EIPICO, which is an Egyptian pharmaceutical company. It is the biggest in the Middle East and it is more than 43 years old. It has more than 400 pharmaceutical products covering 25 therapeutic groups. They have a long history, they are the biggest in the Middle Eastern countries, and they are the biggest in terms of production to the international markets. We have all of the Gulf countries, part of Asia, 27 European countries, also America and South America. All of this comes from hard work from the previous generation and the current team which has worked with the highest qualified people, with education, with knowledge, and focus on caring about the patient. We always make sure that our medications are up to the highest level. There is no place for errors. We take this as our happiness to improve our products based on the FDA requirements and regulations. We have a huge team for development. Also, we have our partner in Spain which is the Keito company. The Keito company is the only approved machine for measuring the human body. When you do blood pressure you must be sitting and put your arm at a certain level. But with Keito, you can do it while you are standing up. This is something nobody else has. Only Keito has this function because in Germany at Berlin University they developed this method. We started working with Sonka in 2015. But unfortunately, the Coronavirus issue two years ago has slowed things down. My priority as CEO for KBSCO is to start in the first quarter of 2022 to go back and see what we can do with our partners in China and how we can develop new product lines and how we can expand our businesses.

Where do you see the company in three years’ time, the medium term? What is your vision?

We always hope for the best. We have a strategy for five years coming to the end of 2024 that we started last year. We give expectation and hope in God that things will be better. Now, nobody is wearing masks in the street. We have below 50 cases for Coronavirus infected per day. The severe cases in the hospital are going down. Around 90% of the population has been vaccinated with two doses and some start taking the 3rd dose. So, the country is ready to kick on the economy and go back to generate more and more. We take advantage of this because in the healthcare sector, the population internationally or Saudi citizens have been made aware of their health situation and take care of it more. Before, people would eat without limitation. Now, you go to a restaurant and people are eating salads. Things are getting better and people are more aware. People care about their health now. More than 40% of the population is below 12 years old. 30% of our profits are supposed to be coming in a new way with awareness and better health. Our company will be expanding. In the past five years, every year we were increasing 10% to 15%, even in the past two years with Coronavirus. We got lucky and it was a headache and it took effort. Sometimes we stayed at work until 9pm, but we did it. Other sectors had to work from home. Unfortunately, we are in healthcare so we have to come to the office every day. We were granted permission from the government to attend work. It was good and bad. In some hospitals I visited, 100% of the beds were only Coronavirus cases. Thank God things are getting better. We take advantage of the fact that people are more aware. We have to find more agents. Hopefully in 2024 or 2025, we will be opening our new factory for the raw materials for the medications. What we focus on is just to provide more products with this government supporting us in Vision 2030. We will be lucky if we take advantage of that and we can be part of this country’s development and needs to avoid what has happened in 2019 and 2020 with the Coronavirus issues. We faced a lot of issues regarding shortages of the major medications. That is where we take advantage of that and the government will be our partner on that to make sure that we will be protecting our society. We could help other countries nearby if we generate more as well and that is what we have been doing.

What is your inspiration? What drives you to do what you do?

My father and his partner established this company a year after I was born. They established the second private medical complex in Riyadh, which is the capital. All my life, I have been in a healthcare family. All of what we know is healthcare. I went to the United States in 1996 and started my education there. I did my BS degree in Business Administration. After that, I got my Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration. Also, I worked for six years in a medical company in Los Angeles, California. I love what I am doing and I am happy to do that. Our partner owns hospitals, too. I worked for almost two years at Rabia Hospital. To be honest, when you see people get better, there is sadness and happiness. When you see them first coming to you very sick, this makes you sad, but by the time they get out of the hospital, you should feel something better. Even though I am not a physician or a doctor, I am still part of this. When I worked at the hospital, I would see people come in sad and they left happy. This makes you just feel something better. At the end of the day, when you go to your bed and you put your head on the pillow, you feel better and you really enjoy your sleeping. Yes, sometimes there are very sad moments. But, in the other parts, there are very happy moments. We are trying to keep the happiness happening to the people as much as we can.

What is one of your success stories?

In 2008, when I came back from the United States, they had just opened a new hospital with 30 beds. I took over the hospital to manage it for two years. It was a newly opened hospital, so there was nothing. According to the Saudi government Ministry of Health, you cannot practice before preparing the facility, providing the machines, bringing the healthcare staff. There was no operation. There were zero patients. You must provide all of this and then start accepting patients to provide healthcare services for them. I selected a great team in 2008. We were successful in 90 days with the hospital takeover and we opened. We contracted with 23 insurance companies as well. Now, we just bought new land of almost 20,000 square meters. Our plan is to open a hospital in impoverished areas with 200 beds because part of this company is a charity. We selected an area where people needed to be served that is mostly middle class where most of them are employees with middle or low income. We will provide almost 20% of the hospital capacity for people who need this but they cannot afford to be served in healthcare.

For more information, please visit: https://kbsco.com.sa.

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