Our strategy to maintain and reach our standards is based on six core priorities:

1. Strengthening our leading position in the MENA region.
Our strong position in the MENA region is unique with operations in 17 MENA markets and more than 1,200 sales and marketing employees. Recent acquisitions have enhanced our presence in existing MENA markets, brought high quality and complementary product portfolios and provided access to new markets, including the large and fast growing Egyptian market. We are confident that the MENA region will continue to offer significant and sustainable market growth opportunities for our existing business and we continue to look for acquisitions across the region.

2. Developing our product range in growing therapeutic areas.
Diabetes is growing in the MENA region, where the ageing population together with lifestyle changes have led to an increase in type 2 diabetes. In fact the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are amongst the 10 countries in the world experiencing the greatest increases of diabetes amongst their populations. With the growing incidence of diabetes comes an increase in cardiovascular disease, with diabetes patients two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than the general population.
To address the changing needs of patients in our markets our portfolio is more focused on the cardiovascular and metabolic therapeutic areas. In 2008 we launched five new cardiovascular products, one diabetes product and two central nervous system products.

3. Extending our reach and diversity through partnerships.
Hikma seeks to strengthen its partnerships with all stakeholders within the healthcare value chain. Expanding our under license business with research based multinational companies is a key part of this strategy and will enable us to continuously launch new innovative medical treatments valued by patients and physicians. In 2008, we signed three new agreements with originator pharmaceutical companies.
In order to differentiate ourselves from other local generic companies in the MENA region, we are forging strong lasting relationships and loyalty with physicians and the medical community by providing medical education programs and scientific workshops and conducting clinical studies.

4. Increasing the scale of our specialty injectables business.
We see considerable scope to develop our market positions in each of our injectables markets. In MENA, we have an excellent opportunity to gain market share in both existing and new markets by leveraging our extensive product portfolio and pipeline. In Europe and the US where we benefit from expanding product pipelines and expect a steady stream of new product launches, we also have scope to continue to develop our growing market positions.
Building our oncology business will be a key priority across all our markets. In 2009 we expect to launch a number of these products in MENA and Europe and we will begin to register these products for the US market.

5. Leveraging our expertise and capacity in the US market.
Our Generics business operates in the competitive US market, by far the largest generics market in the world. Our experienced sales and marketing team is organized to meet the needs of this commoditized market with the support of our world class manufacturing facilities and an excellent regulatory record.
With our renewed commitment to customer service, we continue to build on our solid relationships with our key customers across the various classes of trade in the US. In particular, we also support our business in the field through dedicated representatives who call on our hospital customers.

6. Maintaining our world-class manufacturing and API sourcing capabilities.
We are extremely proud of our 12 world-class manufacturing facilities, most of which have passed inspections by regulators from multiple jurisdictions. Five of our facilities have been FDA approved.
We are committed to maintaining an excellent compliance record at all of our facilities and to this end we make continuous investment in training our excellent workforce. API sourcing also remains a key priority. Our dedicated API sourcing team is focused on identifying high quality, cost effective suppliers for all our markets.