ALLIED INDUSTRY FOCUS Care N’ Cure
Qatar’s very own pharmapreneur Gifted with a knack to connect with people, E P Abdul Rahman dabbled in a lot of trades during his student days, from selling rubber stamps to watches, furniture and electronic goods. The turning point in his life came when he landed in the Middle East for employment in a pharmaceutical company in the 1980s. Today, Rahman is the proud owner of 18 pharmacies, including one wholesale trading unit, in Qatar. His company, Care N’ Cure, is the largest pharma retail chain in Qatar, catering to more than 100 corporate clients. So, what’s the secret behind this meteoric rise in life? In an interview with Future Medicine, Rahman goes into his ordinary past and narrates the extraordinary moments of his life By Sumithra Sathyan Do you have any background in business? While I was in college, one day, my father had showed me the advertisement of a printing press in Sivakasi seeking out agents for rubber stamps. He asked
me whether I was interested. I was ready to do anything for some extra pocket money. Initially, I used to take orders for rubber stamps from friends, teachers, and relatives. After some time, I started getting a lot of customers interested in rubber stamps. Then, I moved onto a lot of part-time activities, from selling watches to furniture and electronic goods. Even during my days at the medical college, I have sold needbased items to my own professors and friends. What brought you into the pharma industry? On completion of my studies in pharmacy, I had worked as a pharmacist
in a small town near my home in Chennamangallur in Calicut district. After two years, I went to the UAE and got a job at Julphar (Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries) as a helper. After a short period of time, I got promoted to the post of in-process control inspector in the quality control department. But I was interested in the sales, marketing and business of pharma. So, I started making efforts to improve my English as the company had a multinational environment. I had befriended a lot of people from different nationalities and that helped me in overcoming the language barrier. After two-and-a-half years, I had resigned from Julphar and joined a pharma distribution company as a sales executive to promote its food supplements. I had worked there for four months. Then came the turning point.
A chain of pharmacies will be established in India in the next five years. We are working on a pharmacy chain as a joint venture in Oman. Efforts are also on to emerge as a leading service provider ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Doha E P Abdul Rahman, Founder, Care N’ Cure
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FUTURE MEDICINE I August 2012