Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is opening a new scientific office in Jeddah to reinforce its commitment to the Saudi market. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest markets in the Middle East with drug expenditure reaching SR4.8 billion, accounting for 65 percent of the entire Gulf region. “Saudi Arabia is a market with huge potential and there is no sign that it's fast pace of growth will slow down soon. With the opening of this new office, Wyeth is reinforcing its long-standing commitment to the market and looking forward to the promising future,” said Rune Bremberg, group vice president, Eastern and Central Europe and the Middle East region, at the opening of the new office. “Wyeth has a long history in Saudi, having been here for 50 years. Over the years, the company has experienced strong growth in the Kingdom with sales in 2007 exceeding SR350 million,' added Tarek Youssef, operational director in the Kingdom. Globally, Wyeth's net revenue increased 10 percent to SR84 billion ($22.4 billion) in 2007. This keeps Wyeth as one of the largest and fastest growing, research-driven pharmaceutical companies in the world with a large product portfolio covering a wide range of therapeutic areas including women's health care, neuroscience, musculoskeletal disorders, vaccines, infectious diseases, hemophilia, immunology, oncology and infant formulae. Speaking about Wyeth's key focus in Saudi Arabia, Joe Henein - managing director, Wyeth MENA said: “Wyeth is committed to ensuring that our products reach the patients who need them most. This especially includes Prevenar, Wyeth's vaccine against invasive pneumococcal diseases like meningitis and pneumonia in children, and Enbrel, for the thousands of patients who are crippled by rheumatoid arthritis.” Siemens new products JEDDAH – Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHC) is migrating most of its Gigaset cordless phones and broadband devices to ECO DECT and ECO Broadband. These products, which bear a special logo, are particularly energy-efficient and have numerous functions which enable the variable reduction of transmission power. This move is part of SHC's continuing environmental program, a concept that is implemented not just in its products, but throughout the company - including its production site in Bocholt, Germany. In September, SHC's environmental management system received the DIN EN ISO 14001 certification. The energy-saving package ensures that power consumption is significantly reduced across all price classes of ECO DECT cordless phones and ECO Broadband products. A key aspect of this is the use of new switched-mode power supplies that consume 60 percent less power than conventional linear power supplies. Display optimization, an intelligent battery charging management system and ECO DECT functions ensure that Gigaset cordless phones use less power, enabling far longer standby and talk times. Cordless phones like the Gigaset, AL140, S670, C470, SL 370 as well as their corresponding answering machine variants automatically reduce transmission power to almost zero if only one handset is used and it is in the base station. Feature phones, such as the Gigaset C470, S670, SL370, and their variants with an answering machine also offer a new ECO mode. By activating the ECO mode in the handset's menu, the transmission power of the base station and handset is cut by 80 percent, even if several handsets are used or the handset is not in the base station. In addition, as has been the case for several Gigaset phone generations now, all handsets automatically reduce transmission power depending on the distance to the base station. For example, transmission power is just 15 percent at a distance of eight meters. Sameer Siddiqui, SHC's CEO, ME&, said “with these measures we are making an active contribution to protecting the environment and saving resources, and we will continue to focus on making our environmental strategy even better since we see it as an important component of quality. We do not believe that cost-effectiveness and environmental protection are incompatible. On the contrary our state-of-the-art production facilities in Bocholt show that quality made in Germany can achieve lasting success on the world market.” Al-Ithmar bourse listing KUWAIT – Global Investment House (Global) said on Monday that it will act as the listing advisor for Ithmar Bank listing in the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), after receiving the initial approval to list a Bahraini company in the KSE. Global and Al-Ithmar Bank agreed six months ago for Global to manage all the procedures for the listing in the KSE. Omar El-Quqa, Global's vice president, said Global considers the process of listing companies in the KSE as an integrated procedure that needs commitment to abide to all KSE requirements. In addition to the range of activities that facilitate tariff's on any investor to easily identify the listed company. He added that it is Global's responsibility to follow the listing requirements and inform the pre-listed company the importance of revealing all information and its future relationship with its shareholders. Therefore, the relationship between the investor and the company will be based on concrete, transparent, and accurate information, ended El-Quqa. The importance of any company to disclose its information to the general public is to broaden the base of shareholder, increase knowledge, reduce listing fees, and assist the company in financing its capital. He applauded the listing of many companies at the stock exchange comes in time considered “a healthy economic phenomenon witnessing an increase in volume, on condition they are studied and controlled by market laws and regulations. Ithmar Bank achieved outstanding results for the year ending 2007, in which net profits were $188.3 million compared to $181.1 in 2006. Total assets is at $4078 million whereas funds under management recorded 1724 million. ENOC appoints new GM ABU DHABI – In a recent strategic move aimed at consolidating ENOC's position as market leader, the company has announced the appointment of industry veteran Saif Humaid Al-Falasi as group general manager. Al-Falasi brings to the role more than 26 years of experience in spearheading exploration and production processes in the region. GM turns 100 in 2008 DUBAI – General Motors celebrates its 100th birthday on Sept. 16, 2008 and the company will be marking this special occasion throughout the year with a series of events and initiatives held across the world under the banner of GMnext. The theme of the centennial - GMnext - reflects GM's desire to not only celebrate its achievements from the past and present, but also to showcase its visions for the future. There is much to celebrate for GM, which has been the global leader in car sales for the past 77 years. The company has made a major contribution to the automotive world over the past century and is renowned for developing stylish, innovative and technologically-advanced vehicles that provide outstanding value. GM is also pursuing its vision to offer the broadest possible range of alternative energy vehicles, as exemplified by its acclaimed hybrid models. Throughout 2008 customers can follow events around the world and share their thoughts and ideas on critical issues such as energy, the environment and globalization, via a new dedicated online community - www.gmnext.com. There they will also find the Generation of GM Wiki, an online history of the corporation that includes firsthand accounts from past and present employees, customers, dealers and suppliers. As part of the festivities, GM will roll out special dealer promotions and a number of regional events, culminating on Sept. 16. This date will be marked by a major celebratory event in Dubai - one of only nine such events being hosted globally by GM. __
