A journey from memory to the future, and from disease to industry — as told from inside the lab.
❝ From the desert we built the ability to survive; from oil we built the modern state;
and from pharmaceutical and biotech industries we will build a coming renaissance of science and knowledge.
— From the book's introduction
Medicine doesn't appear suddenly on the pharmacy shelf, and its first moment isn't when a doctor prescribes it. It begins years earlier: in a scientific question, then a hypothesis, then an experiment, then data that needs someone to trust it and someone to doubt it at the same time — before it finally reaches the hand of a patient waiting for something more than words.
That's why the conversation about Saudi Arabia's pharmaceutical future can't be about factories alone, nor strategies alone, nor capital alone. This book is a journey stretching from memory to the future, from disease to industry, from the lab to the company, from strategy to the factory, and from Hajj to global health.
The book's first hope is to move the question of medicine in Saudi Arabia from "what do we buy?" to "what do we build and develop?", and from "who owns the product?" to "who owns the knowledge?"
This is not a book about medicine in the narrow sense. It's a book about the state, science, the economy, the patient, and the future taking shape in front of us now.
Because you're living a rare moment in your country's history — a shift from an economy built on a natural resource to one built on knowledge and precision industry.
A physician, pharmacist, or researcher: you'll find a reading of the context you work inside every day, and the threads that connect your work to a larger system.
An investor or official: the book offers not abstract numbers, but a way to order capabilities into a clear system that keeps the patient at the end of every chain of decisions.
A preface chronicling a century of Saudi pharmaceutical industry, then four parts taking the reader from the legacy to the wider horizon.
The honest starting point: how Saudi Arabia's health and pharmaceutical system was built, what we truly own, and what we don't yet.
AI, the genome, and data: how the tools of making medicine are changing before us, and where the chance to leap to the front lies.
From idea to company: the returnees, strategy, venture capital, and factories — the elements that turn science into a standing industry.
Where Saudi Arabia can offer the world something distinctive: antimicrobial resistance, women's health, longevity, and mass-gathering medicine at Hajj.
A Saudi researcher and advisor in pharmaceutical industries, biotechnology, and health innovation, holding PharmD, MSc, and PhD degrees. He founded and led several initiatives, centers, and specialized entities — most notably the Knowledge Economy Center, the "Made in Saudi Arabia" center, the Research Excellence Center in Pharmaceutical Industries, and the Saudi Scientific Society for Pharmaceutical Industries, as well as Al-Tiryaq First Medical for pharmaceuticals — and contributed to launching the first university medical products in national markets. He focuses on translating complex scientific knowledge into a language that decision-makers, investors, physicians, researchers, and general readers can engage with.
Dr. Alhakamy is a weekly columnist at Makkah Newspaper, writing at the intersection of pharmaceutical innovation, biotech investment, healthcare policy, and the emerging economy. He is a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, and a co-founder of several Saudi and American ventures in health, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. A TEDx speaker, he has helped spotlight pharmaceutical research and scientific innovation. His writing draws on three decades at the intersection of the pharmaceutical industry, academic research, and entrepreneurship — simplifying what happens inside labs, boardrooms, and regulators into trustworthy public knowledge.
Read the book's introduction before you buy:
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