Our Portfolio
Biotech, Pharma, Healthcare
Blue Terra Capital supports
Dr. Raymond Abolhassani
both for the great business
and for the real impact he
has, especially in Africa.
Biotech, Pharma, Healthcare:
RabVaccine / PharmaBio Labs
When in the summer of 2021 Andreas met Dr. Raymond Abolhassani he was impressed not only by the incredible academic credentials, Raymond is the only person he knows that has 3 Doctorates (PhD) but by his humanism that reflects his upbringing in the first half of his life in Iran and then his education at the top Biotech universities in France. Raymond’s time at the Pasteur Institute also exemplifies some of the unique capabilities that he created:
Effectively his 3 PhD’s were complementary to each other to find the solution to produce in high quality and fast the most widely used vaccine in the world, BCG (created at Pasteur Institute 100 years ago). BCG’s strong anti-inflammatory qualities prove to be the only cure for the main type of bladder cancer. The highly concentrated format of the cancer treatment, intravesical BCG, cannot be produced in high enough quality / speed thus there is a global chronic shortage of the treatment. In the US US, the alternative is around 40 times more expensive while also far less effective. As such Raymond’s lab in Paris that has the capability to fill in this gap by producing fast high quality BCG seed lots has the potential to unlock billions of dollars in value while providing a medicine at a fraction of the alternatives.
BCG’s anti-inflammatory qualities are derivative of not only being the most simple form of bacilli but also due to its fungal attributes. This can explain the main other applications that BCG is being tested including in dealing with Covid variants as well as many types of cancer.
Blue Terra’s advisory board are almost all in one capacity or another pushing to help expedite Raymond’s work to reach its potential.
Among the other inventions of Raymond, a colorectal cancer test kit that he first published in 2009 is what has become a big success in certain markets (such as Cologuard in the US). Blue Terra / partners are working with him in launching this in the form of either higher efficacy or at very low cost as the CRC test kit that is being launched in Oman in August or September 2023.
The third pillar of the cooperation with Dr. Abolhassani is in the provision of low cost generic drugs in Africa through partnerships that he developed with some of the world’s leading generic drugs manufacturers such as Apotex (Canada).
Muscat Medical Mall
Muscat Medical Mall is the brainchild of Saleh Miri, Blue Terra’s principal Andreas Karas’ friend for 27 years. Saleh Miri is not just a core advisory board member and Blue Terra Partner, he is an unconventional architect that has created many unique large projects, including the largest in Oman, Blue City, a 27 sq. km. new city in the making.
Muscat Medical Mall goes beyond the usual model of such medical complexes offering comprehensive ambulatory medical services (as primary and secondary care, diagnostic procedures, outpatient surgery, and rehabilitation). The current plan for 57,122 m2 has just (in August 2023) taken a new dimension through the partnership negotiations with the government to become even larger (around double the size). The project aims to fill a gap in high quality, easily accessible healthcare that will also has the country’s leading one-stop-shop SPA+ for dermatology, beauty products.
Despite the fact that Omanis can be treated without charge in government hospitals, some choose to visit private hospitals to avoid wait times. The government reimburses private hospitals for their care. Oman has been pushing for the implementation of modern technological solutions to boost efficiency in the health care sector and ultimately keep costs down and cut waiting times, providing even more operational flexibility to the medical side of Muscat’s Medical Mall choices.
Muscat Medical Mall will be helping Oman deal with the rise in lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. The health care sector continues to focus on treatment rather than preventative care, with less priority placed upon wellness education and limited focus on rehabilitative care, including physical, occupational, and developmental therapies. There are gaps in such areas as choices of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and supplies, X-ray and MRIs, ultrasound devices, surgical equipment, management information systems, tele-medicine, medical insurance, fellowships, residencies, specialized short courses, and healthcare administrator training.
There are opportunities for public-private partnerships as the Ministry of Health transitions to regulator status over the long term. Effectively Muscat Medical Mall can also serve as a spring board for strategic foreign partners to expand their business in Oman. Oman’s health insurance market is evolving and Muscat Medical Mall is considering foreign strategic partners that can help the country’s transition as the MoH has repeatedly stressed the need to develop innovative health care financing and insurance solutions, which is even more appealing to the large expats community given that insurance became mandatory in 2018 for expats in the private sector and compulsory national health insurance was introduced in phases beginning in January 2019.