On March 14, 2019, Dr. Omar Sakr, Founder and CEO of Nawah-Scientific, Egypt delivered an invited presentation to GMU PharmD students titled “A journey from Science to Entrepreneurship”
The presentation was an eye-opener to students as they came to realize the magnitude of career business opportunities that are based on what they are learning at the College of Pharmacy. The seminar summarized the story of Nawah-Scientific, the first private multidisciplinary research center in Egypt and possibly the Middle East.
Dr. Omar started by describing the ideas that can be pushed into the market based on the pillars of the idea: the problem, the solution and the client who will pay for implementation on large scale and marketing.
According to the presenter, ideas should solve a big problem for a broad range of people. Also, ideas need to be scalable, realistic and cost-effective when compared to other solutions already available in the market. Inventors must decide if they are ready to scale-up their ideas on their own or partner with someone to take care of the business side. Different business models were discussed including production, licensing, offering services, market place, subscription, and the freemium model.
The presentation stimulated students and faculty to ask questions to learn more about incubators in the UAE and how to patent their creative ideas.
The seminar slides are available through the following link