Medscience

Muhieddine Makkouk

Muhieddine Makkouk is a seasoned biopharma executive with over 30 years of experience in the industry. He joined Medscience in January 2022 as CEO, to lead the efforts in expanding the company’s geographic footprint as well as its product and partner portfolio. Throughout his career, Muhieddine has been highly successful at developing teams, business, and partnerships across numerous geographies and therapeutic areas. He has led multiple successful specialty product launches in oncology, hematology, neurology, and virology. His experience on the country and regional operational level as well as the corporate level facilitates his ability to move back and forth between high level strategy and tactical execution, leveraging his expertise in working with key stakeholders and business partners alike. Prior to Medscience, Muhieddine spent 9 years at Gilead Sciences in various commercial and corporate roles spanning EMEA distributor markets, general manager nordics and VP, global alliance management, and M&A integration. Muhieddine began his career in consulting with IMS Health (now IQVIA), before moving to the industry side assuming roles of increasing responsibility with MSD and Novartis. Muhieddine holds a Master of Public Affairs, Health Policy & Economics from the University of Connecticut, USA and a Bachelor of Arts, Honors in economics from the Lebanese American University. He has completed numerous executive education programs.

Elie Rizkallah

Elie Rizkallah MD, MBA, is the head of medical promotion at Medscience. He is responsible for the management of the day-to-day business activities and operations of Medscience across the Middle East and Africa. With 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, he had several roles in France and the Middle East, ranging from consultancy to marketing, sales and medical within Roche, Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Digene, and Novartis Oncology. Prior to joining Medscience in 2015, he was medical director and board member at Hotel Dieu de France Hospital. Elie graduated as a medical doctor from St Joseph University of Beirut in 1999 and holds a specialized master’s degree in medical management and pharmaceutical marketing from the European School of Management (ESCP-EAP, Paris), a diploma in statistics and epidemiology from Paris VI University, as well as a diploma in healthcare mediation. He has also accomplished the Middle East Health Leadership Program at INSEAD Business School and the executive Program on Negotiation at Harvard Business School.

Joseph Boustany

Joseph (Joe) Boustany, PharmD, is the regional compliance manager at Medscience. He offers staff members advice on compliance-related issues, assisting them in achieving their objectives while remaining in accordance with anti-bribery and industry standards, as well as with business policies and procedures. Joe developed a compliance program that ensures trainings are delivered to the staff in a timely manner. He is also a key contact for supplier’s audits with excellent audit records since 2016. Initially Joe joined the Khalil Fattal & Fils (Fattal) Group, which Medscience is a part of, in February 2016 as compliance manager, working with the team that promotes BMS products. Prior to joining Medscience and Fattal Group, he worked with multiple multinational companies in various positions including business coordinator, and technical officer for third party manufacturing, sales, SFE, marketing, and medical. Joe is also a teacher of pharmacology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Saint Joseph University since 1992. He holds a master’s degree in pharmacology from Université Paris VI - France and a Pharm. D degree from Saint Joseph University in Lebanon.

Yolla Jaber

Yolla Jaber joined Medscience in 2019 as cluster head for Levant-Egypt. She provides leadership and direction to different functions in her division; focusing on sustained growth in profitability and sales revenue, ensuring efficiency, quality service; and optimizing customer engagement. She has been eager to reach more patients and managed to successfully support the expansion to new territories like Algeria. She believes that people are the most important pillars in the organization, and she is keen to nurture a performance driven culture while embracing high ethical standards. She is an experienced pharmaceutical industry leader who spent 25 years of her career working in different roles and functions at multinational and regional companies across diversified therapy areas, business models and geographies. Yolla is driven by her passion to add value and to touch patient’s lives especially in the oncology field. She has a robust experience in key brands, generics, and biosimilars. Prior to Medscience, she worked with Bristol Myers Squibb, Benta SAL, Biologix, and Sandoz. Yolla holds a Bachelor of Science degree in medical laboratory technology from the American University of Beirut, and she is a proud mother of two girls.

Fady Dabar

Fady Dabar has extensive expertise in licensing and acquisitions with a track record of accomplishments in the pharmaceutical industry, specifically in strategic planning, portfolio expansion and new markets penetration. His mission is to develop and implement business strategies that drive sustainable growth and increase market share. Fady has 28 years’ experience in pharmaceuticals. He held several regional roles including Business Development Head, Licensing and Acquisitions at Abbott laboratories and Regional Marketing Manager Middle East, Egypt and Turkey at Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Fady holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy from Saint Joseph University and a Master in Business administration from ESA Beirut and ECSP Paris.

Valerie Chidiac

Valerie Chidiac is Medscience’s regional Gilead franchise manager for the Levant region. She oversees sales and product management, as well as managing the franchise team across the countries, and ensuring sustainable company growth. She has 25 years of experience between the Middle East, North America, and Africa markets, including Maghreb countries in the pharmaceutical and medical devices fields in business to professionals, business-to-business sales and trade relations, continuing medical education development projects, and sales and marketing management. Before joining Medscience, she held a role at KARL STORZ GmbH as marketing manager for urology, gynecology, and general minimal invasive surgery lines covering the Sub-Saharan Africa and Maghreb countries. Valerie holds a Master of Science degree in medical biology from the Faculty of Public Health II at the Lebanese University. She has also completed the Council of Continuing Pharmacy Education (CCPE-CFPC) Accreditation Courses in Canada, and holds a project management degree from McGill University in Montreal.

Diana Salameh

Diana Salameh, PharmD, is Medscience’s regional medical manager for Algeria, Egypt, and Lebanon for the IO and hematology lines. She worked on the launch of immuno-oncology in Lebanon and Jordan (Nivolumab and Nivolumab -Yervoy). As a doctor in clinical pharmacy, she has experience in hematology, immunology, and hepatology. Diana has participated in many immuno-oncology trainings, and worked on medical activities with oncologists, hematologists, gastroenterologists, and immunologists. Previously, she was a product specialist at BMS in Lebanon and Dubai, where she worked on the cardiovascular, anti-infective and psychiatry portfolio. Diana is a recipient of the BMS, MEA award for innovation in immunology.

Patricia El Khoury

Patricia El Khoury, Pharm D, is business unit manager for Lebanon at Medscience. She is responsible for the oncology portfolio team, and worked on the launch of two flagship products that marked the success of a novel treatment strategy in the battle against cancer. Patricia has over 25 years of experience in marketing and sales, as a business unit manager, first line manager, product manager, and medical representative; with companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb, and Pacific Pharma. She worked on different portfolios including cardiology, virology, neurology, and rheumatology.  

Gilbert Daher

Gilbert Daher joined Medscience in 2021 as regional regulatory affairs manager. He is responsible for registration, renewal, and the maintenance of the lifecycle of medicinal products in the whole MEA and Levant region. In addition, he is handling PV and logistics for the region. Prior to Medscience, he worked as a community pharmacist from 2010 till 2020 in different pharmacies in Lebanon and joined Algorithm SAL/Biologix FZco in 2015 till 2021 where he worked as a regulatory affairs team leader. He managed the whole region of GCC (KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Qatar), Levant (Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan), and North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria). He also dealt with multiple multinationals including Ipsen, Ipsen primary care, Biogen, Amgen, Celgene, Takeda, Teijin, Orexigen, Chiesi, MSD, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Gilbert graduated from the Lebanese American University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in pharmacy. He also acquired a Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate from the Project Management Institute (PMI), USA in 2019.