CEO Insights Magazine

Today, the distribution of healthcare facilities to every corner of the world is a matter of far concern. With an aim of providing healthcare facilities to the last man standing, Axantia, the holding company of Pharma International and Med City Pharma was established in 2014 which develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes high-quality branded generic pharmaceuticals and under-licensed products in more than 19 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and the CIS. The company is providing a broad spectrum of high-quality, effective, and affordable pharmaceutical products that helped Axantia continue to leap towards the betterment of lives one day at a time, advancing in a steady step towards a bright future.

Positioned as the new Country Manager for the UAE branch, Nidaa Mresh has obtained her Master’s degree in Pediatric specialty, and completed her Certificate of Graduation Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Aleppo, in 2000. She started her professional career as a full-time medical representative at GlaxoSmithKline company specializing in vaccine lines. Because success is the most attractive factor to continue, Nidaa worked with them for 15 years, and eventually got promoted through it to Product Specialist, then F.L Sales Manager, and was responsible for full GSK portfolio, leading three teams in North Syria. However in 2015, GlaxoSmithKline closed its operation there and Nidaa eventually moved to the UAE in 2016 to start her career from scratch again, as she joined the Medica group and started gaining GCC field experience.

Currently, she is working in the position of Country Manager with Pharma International – Axantia group. Nidaa was the second female doctor who worked as a medical representative in her area and after this, more women representatives followed her trail and started opting for this as a career.

CEO Insights ASIA recently engaged in a one-on-one interaction with Nidaa Mresh, let’s get to know more about her.

What has been a success mantra that constantly helps you arrive at positive outcomes?

I believe what helped me is my dedication towards my work and insistence on success, and what my parent have taught me since I was very young. I am very responsible as well as accountable once a job is delegated. I always believe that leading from the front is the true trait of a leader and that is what I believe in. When I am working, I take every minute seriously and always take the lead to prove to the world that I am able and can do it.

I believe learning will not end whatever our age is, learning extends our knowledge and positively impacts our performance. We learn from our managers, from the daily practices, training, and courses. Hence, last year I started my MBA with Lincoln University of Business Management, England to enrich both my knowledge and experience. I will not ignore that an important factor behind my success is my husband’s and family’s support. For female workers, usually, keeping the balance between family and work is a major challenge but when the family members understand and support, success will definitely open arms.

How would you define Axantia as an organization and its current position in the market? What are the value additions that customers can expect from your offerings?

Axantia is a regional leader in generic medicine, committed to improving healthcare outcomes, cost of care, and the general well-being of patients. The company focuses on creating and developing a brand that is synonymous with quality. Axantia as mentioned before is the holding company for both Pharma International (established in 1994 in Jordan) and MedCity Pharma (acquired by Axantia in 2016).

Axantia has three manufacturing sites, two in Jordan for Pharma International, and one in KSA for Med City Pharma, producing different lines- tablets, capsules, liquids, dry suspension, injectables, and semi solids. Axantia is now available across more than 19 countries with plans to expand into Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco, playing a market leader role in some countries. PIC was marked between the top five companies in Iraq for 2022, while in UAE PIC has successfully achieved very considerable growth in sales versus 2021 with a leading role for some antibiotic brands. Axantia provide diversified portfolio for many therapeutic classes including Cardiovascular diseases, Central Nervous system, respiratory system, and more, with a plan to add additional chronic therapeutic classes in the future and according to IQVIA MAT Q4 - 2022 report, Axantia has registered in Jordan the fastest growth among the top 10 corporations.

Axantia is growing with a strategy of multiple localization projects in different markets with a mission to become between top companies providing quality products for patient treatment. The products made at Axantia are diversified and serve many disease areas. They are high in quality and have a positive impact on the effectiveness, quick recovery, and consequently the quality of life, achieving good quality with acceptable pricing will secure the recovery under the insurance umbrella. This only became possible because people in Axantia are taking full accountability for their work and caring about all the processes right from manufacturing to the end user. The accountability starts with me in front of my team, and we all are accountable in front of patients, healthcare providers and authorities.

Tell us about your leadership and governance approach. What are the guidelines you follow as a leader?

Leadership is an outcome of competence, skills, attitude, behavior, training, and experience. In the UAE, leadership skill plays an important role because the people working here come from different cultures but they all need to be motivated, appreciated, and to be thanked when needed.

As a leader, I believe in the team and focus on people, people can change the figures and turn the impossible into possible.

I am keen to be always available, and present with my team, my open door makes me easily accessible, involved and ready to support them to face challenges together. I also ensure proper communication with the team or any stakeholder to create a professional relationship and healthy working environment. Being present and supportive are the cornerstones of becoming a successful leader. I not only support my colleagues within the UAE team, also those of other departments. My strong medical knowledge enables me to participate in product knowledge training and support the medical department in different aspects and over many years.

Always trust my team and build confidence because they are on the ground with a clear picture of reality, empowering them to unlock their potential and giving the right delegation to the suitable candidate, and ensuring that all my team members must feel an equal distance from me.

I am trying to take care of team social activities, and start my day with a positive attitude and energy. Energy is contagious, my team also responds with energy and carries a positive attitude throughout the day.

What is the future destination you are heading towards?

I have experienced two major shifts in my life - shifting from being a doctor and moving into the pharmaceutical industry, and secondly, shifting from my home country Syria to the UAE. After starting everything back from zero in the UAE and without giving up, I was recruited in PIC as market access manager and after four years of successful record, I got the opportunity to lead the team and was promoted to Country Sales Manager. In the future, I am not looking for any specific position, but, what I need is constant growth for myself. Every day we find new positions with different titles to meet the specific area of work or experience. I do prefer getting more responsibilities, an extended mission for growth rather than fixing one single target and without keeping a specific position or reward in my mind.

What advice would you give to budding industry leaders?

I will tell all the budding industry leaders that this industry is very dynamic, and it keeps changing like everything in life. They should very well know their potential, competencies, and what they need from their journey. Today, learning and getting information is easier than before, apart from colleges, institutions, and universities anyone can just go to some website and get themselves trained in any domain they want. Virtual learning has solved many challenges. Therefore, leaders of new generations, today must tailor their training & study according to their needs, new trends, and opportunities as well as the market’s need and always look forward to opportunities by being very specific.

Nidaa Mresh, Country Manager, Pharma International – Axantia

From studying pediatrics to working in the pharmaceutical industry, Nidaa Mresh has converted her life shifts into great success. She started her career as a Medical Representative and went on to become the Country Manager at Pharma International - Axantia. She is very dedicated to her work and takes full responsibility for everything she is accountable for. Nidaa believes that constant success is a very attractive factor to continue doing what you are doing and that is how she climbed up to the pinnacle of success in her career. Nidaa is committed to improving positioning PIC – Axantia company in the UAE market to be a key player as well as a good partner to healthcare providers.

QUICK FACTS:

• Hobbies: Swimming & Reading

• Favorite Cuisine: Mediterranean Cuisine

• Favorite Book: The latest one I read- ‘Because I love you’ by the writer Guillaume Meso.

• Favorite Travel Destination: Belguim

• Awards & Recognition:

1. Leadership- Outstanding Performance in the year 2018, Recognized by Pharma International Company.

2. President award in 2011: Performance based assessment includes achievement as well as behavioral (what do you achieve and how)

3. Best Achiever awards through my work journey, later in 2011 & 2010, Recognized by GlaxoSmithKline.