Mourad Ishak, country president Novartis and general manager Sandoz Algeria reveals Novartis’ investment plan for local production, their “under one roof” project for the Novartis entities, and the key strategies to ensure sustainability within the Algerian market.   You’ve been in Algeria for four years. Can you enlighten our viewers on the evolution of Sandoz during that time? I joined Algeria from Dubai in 2014, at a time of worldwide oil crisis, prices had fallen and the Algerian government increased pressure on the pharma industry for localization. In my view this was fair. Sandoz already held a strong legal entity, a factory that had been producing for 20 years, and a respected name locally. In this way, we already matched the government’s expectations of a pharmaceutical company in Algeria. When we gathered the team and discussed our priorities and commitments to Algeria, we concluded that our main goal was to expand our local footprint. Consequently, in 2015 we decided to invest USD 35 million to upgrade and advance our local facilities. Our second goal was to incorporate all sections of Novartis (Novartis, Sandoz, and Novartis Oncology) into the project. We are all under one umbrella of Novartis, producing products from different sectors locally. We combined almost all the teams of Novartis under one legal entity, part of our wider “under one roof” strategy; the endpoint is for all the teams to be in a single location.   You mentioned that you believed the government’s localization plan after the oil price drop in 2014 was a fair measure, a view in contrast to the general consensus amongst the multinational pharma companies in the market. Why do you believe this was fair?

I have worked across Africa and the Middle East but am yet to encounter a country like Algeria where the government is so committed to healthcare