Post by Firas W. AlShawish

Every global pharma company entering MENA makes the same assumption: 🤔 "We need a local agent to handle customs and logistics. Sign the contract, focus on the science, move on." 🙏 After 25 years in this region, I can tell you that assumption is strategically blind. Your distributor is not a logistics vendor. 🤝 They are your regulatory proxy. Your compliance guarantor. Your continuity proof. Your institutional memory in a market where you are physically absent. I once had a hospital pharmacist in Iraq with patients scheduled for infusion in six hours, and our shipment held at the border. My distributor's local manager did not send an email to a help desk. He drove to the customs office himself. 💪 That pharmacist later sat on a procurement committee reviewing our next tender. He did not need to read our supply chain annex. He remembered who answered the phone. 👌 Tenth article in my MENA Market Access Series (MENA MAX). This one is for every company that still files its distributor contract in a drawer instead of treating it as a tender strategy asset. 👇 #DistributorManagement #MarketAccess #MENA #PharmaCommercial #TenderStrategy #SupplyChain #GovernmentProcurement #Compliance #GCC #Levant #Iraq