Read the Conversation
Meeting highlights:
- Lundbeck's Legacy in Saudi Arabia: Over 30 years, playing a significant role in the mental health space.
- Commitment to Continuous Medical Education: The importance of early diagnosis, raising awareness about mental health, and initiatives such as the Lundbeck Institute.
- Addressing Unmet Needs: Tackling the stigma surrounding mental health and underdiagnosis
- Creating a Great Place to Work: Building the right team, prioritizing developing people, providing growth opportunities, and ensuring a supportive, collaborative and inclusive work environment.
- Developing Saudi Talent: Building the capacity of the new generation in Saudi Arabia, focusing on collaboration, as core values.
- Visionary Leadership and Business Growth: Nagib's leadership has contributed to the organization's vision by embracing business growth and achieving double-digit growth in the past three years, driven by both successful product launches and growing the legacy products
EF: Could you elaborate on what you have been working on? What mission did you set for yourself for next year?
MN: Lundbeck's journey in Saudi Arabia spans over 30 years, with a local presence established more than 25 years ago. We've built enduring partnerships and witnessed inspiring patient stories throughout this time. Our success in 2024 reflects our ability to adapt to Saudi Arabia's rapid evolution, particularly in healthcare.
Mental health remains our primary focus, and Saudi Arabia has made remarkable strides. The establishment of the General Department of Mental Health and Social Health in 1983 was a key milestone, leading to significant improvements in mental health infrastructure, hospitals, and professional training. Vision 2030 has accelerated this progress, broadening the scope of mental health care to include patients' social and physical well-being.
At Lundbeck, we are proud to support these efforts through continuous medical education. Our team works tirelessly to share the latest updates with healthcare professionals—psychiatrists, neurologists, and general practitioners—on vital topics like migraines, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia.
Saudi Arabia's encouragement to integrate local talent into multinational companies is particularly exciting. At Lundbeck, we've embraced this opportunity, recognizing the exceptional potential of the ambitious Saudi pharmacists. By fostering a forward-thinking and committed leadership team to guide this talent, we've seen extraordinary results since starting my journey at the end of 2021. Our efforts have enhanced key performance indicators and earned us recognition as a Great Place to Work in Saudi Arabia for two consecutive years. This achievement underscores the strength of our motivated and collaborative team.
EF: How would you rate the evolution of mental health awareness, and how can we increase this awareness in Saudi Arabia?
MN: Addressing the global challenges of stigma and underdiagnosis in neuropsychiatric disorders is a key priority for Lundbeck. In Saudi Arabia, the government has taken significant strides to improve mental health care, including enhanced infrastructure and comprehensive health counseling programs aimed at early diagnosis of conditions like depression and anxiety—two of the most underdiagnosed and stigmatized disorders. Initiatives such as the Ministry of Health's digital platforms have expanded mental health resources, making them more accessible to the population.
We are proud to contribute to these national efforts as a specialized CNS company. Education remains central to our approach, led by initiatives like the Lundbeck Institute. In 2023, we hosted the first Lundbeck Institute activity in Saudi Arabia, where renowned international professors provided specialized training to mental health professionals from Ministry of Health hospitals. This training deepened medical knowledge and helped doctors develop patient trust—crucial for initiating and sustaining treatment.
On the digital front, we complement the government's efforts by introducing our "Progress in Mind" resource center to Saudi Arabia, a platform providing healthcare professionals with tools for self-education and resources to educate others.
Our efforts also extend to public engagement. During the past years, we have partnered with the Ministry of Health and other healthcare stakeholders to celebrate World Mental Health Day, evolving it into a month-long series of impactful activities every October. These events transcend professional circles, engaging the broader public to reduce stigma and foster a deeper understanding of mental health.
EF: How is Saudi Arabia fostering innovation in healthcare, and what are the key factors driving the successful adoption of innovative treatments?
MN: The country has taken two significant steps to foster innovation. First, it has revolutionized its product registration process and is now among the fastest in the region. Products that once required 2–3 years for approval can now receive the green light within six months of their launch in the U.S. or Europe. Second, Saudi Arabia has enhanced patient access to medication by supporting the private insurance market and fortifying government hospital systems. These advancements have paved the way for innovative treatments to enter the market seamlessly.
The integration of modern therapies often extends beyond traditional oral medications, requiring infrastructure, and trained professionals. For instance, some innovative migraine treatments in my field necessitate dedicated administration settings. As a result, engaging physicians alone is no longer sufficient; successful implementation requires collaboration with insurance providers, hospital administrators, nurses, payers, and pharmacists. Pharmacists, in particular, play a vital role, as innovative treatments often demand specific storage and handling requirements. The good news is that Saudi Arabia has laid a strong foundation to support these advancements.
. It is pivotal when introducing innovative treatments. Saudi Arabia is well-positioned for such advancements, with its openness to innovation and commitment to delivering the best for its population.
EF: One of the objectives of the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 is to build on local talent; you mentioned at the beginning how committed you and Lundbeck are, could you further develop how you are achieving this?
MN: We are working to build the capacity of the new generation of Lundbeck Saudi. We've created an environment where everyone feels safe to voice their ambitions and share what they want and can do. To support this, we launched the LEAP project, a task force that allows people from different parts of the company to come together. They either work on capturing opportunities or overcoming challenges, gather information, make decisions, make plans and present them to the steering committee. The beauty of this initiative is that it opened the space to develop the people who are committed to their careers which fostered diversity and inclusion naturally. We shifted from being an all-male company to having 55% female and 45% male employees, now with 20% of my management team being women. We also went from having a single expat nationality to a mix of Saudi and other multinational employees. By letting the team voice their ambitions and genuinely guide them, we helped them grow and strengthening the overall structure.
EF: How's your leadership style and relationship with employees, especially with Lundbeck being a mental health company?
MN: leadership and cultivating effective leadership within the pharmaceutical industry is a topic that interest me . My leadership philosophy centers on having the right people on board. This begins by empowering your current team—investing in their growth, offering training, and fostering an environment where they can thrive. Simultaneously, it's crucial to bring in fresh talent: individuals who bring valuable skills and align with the company's values.
Investing in your team also means giving everyone a fair chance to prove themselves, and it's essential to recognize when someone lacks engagement. Holding on to disengaged individuals can hinder the entire team's progress. Once the right people are in place, the next step is to guide them with genuine care—offering growth opportunities, encouraging them to take on new challenges, and helping them become the best versions of themselves.
The hardest part of leadership in my point of view is fostering collaboration among strong, independent individuals. High achievers often excel independently, but teamwork can be more complex. True collaboration isn't just additive; it should feel more than the sum of its parts, although sometimes it feels less. Sometimes self-interest can overshadow shared goals.
As a leader, your role is cultivating a culture where the team—not the individual—is the hero. This requires relentless effort and energy but pays dividends in the long term. Encouraging everyone to embrace shared success over individual glory is the cornerstone of sustainable growth.
EF: When Vision 2030 is completed, how would you like to be remembered, or what would you like to have achieved?
MN: I want myself, the company, and the team to be remembered as pioneers—early adopters who fully embraced and contributed positively to Vision 2030. Central to that vision is a commitment to cultivating local talent, a transformative shift for Saudi Arabia. The country is now prioritizing the hiring and development of Saudi pharmacists. This shift is a tremendous opportunity, and I'm passionate about seizing it by empowering ambitious, energetic, and committed professionals.
I want us to be remembered as those who embraced this change and thrived because of it. Over the past three years, we have achieved over double-digit growth—an extraordinary accomplishment, particularly amid the complexities of launching new products. We didn't just grow; we redefined ourselves. We introduced a new structure and established a new generation of Lundbeck Saudi. Together, we launched this team while continuing to expand our existing portfolio.
The legacy I envision is a team representing the new era of Lundbeck Saudi, defined by innovation, resilience, and a commitment to nurturing local talent, leaving a lasting positive impact on the industry and the nation.
