MEDICINE MAN

For Sherine Hassan Helmy, CEO of Egypt's Pharco Pharmaceuticals, success is about impacting humanity, as well as growing his family business. Having helped tackle an endemic hepatitis C outbreak in Egypt, he's now looking to Africa and to biological products for future progress.

- MUNAWAR SHARIFF

A decade ago, Egypt had the highest number of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) cases in the world, according to a September 2022 report by the World Economic Forum. A widespread campaign to treat schistosomiasis-a disease caused by parasitic worms in the second half of the 20th century had unwittingly spread HCV, and by 2015, 10% of people in Egypt between the ages of 15 and 59 had the disease. Fast forward eight years, and today it is on track to be the first country in the world to completely eliminate HCV within its borders.

It has achieved this thanks to a national screening and treatment program launched by the Egyptian government in 2014, which saw government departments, non-profit providers, international organizations such as the WHO and the World Bank, and private players working together to test and treat the population. In particular, local drug manufacturer Pharco Pharmaceuticals played its part by creating and producing affordable and effective direct-acting antivirals. By 2020, Egypt had screened more than 60 million people for HCV and successfully treated over four million.

Pharco is currently working on an African project, "A Billion Lives Matter," in line with the UN SDGs, which aims to test and treat 90% of Hepatitis B and C patients in Africa by 2030. "Approximately 8% of the African population is infected with Hepatitis B and 2% with Hepatitis C," says Sherine Hassan Helmy, CEO of Pharco Pharmaceuticals. "To get a firm grip on your future, you need to rewrite the rules of the game. We want to help humankind by creating new, high-quality products and have them available to the consumer at affordable prices."