Dallah Healthcare Company's venture-capital arm, Afx Inc., which is based in Silicon Valley, invested about $30 million in developing a machine that could read cardiac arrhythmia - the abnormal beating of the heart - and then sold it for more than $120 million to Guidant. Use of the machine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and it is now being sold worldwide.
"In these sorts of ventures we are obviously forced to look outside of Saudi Arabia because understanding of venture capital is minimal in the kingdom," says Professor Al-Fagih.
"There is a lack of supporting sectors here, which is why most medical equipment companies operate in places like Silicon Valley. But that does not mean that we cannot provide the creative initiative and capital for such projects. "We are prepared to take risks and are always looking for new opportunities," he adds.
The result is a new project called truCCOMS established by Omega Critical Care Ltd., a medical devices manufacturer based in Scotland and owned by Dallah. The TruCCOMS cardiac output monitoring system is the only one providing real-time, continuous, accurate information. It provides long-awaited benefits, especially in live-heart surgery and for critically ill patients with haemodynamic instabilities. Clearance has been obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the device is now on sale worldwide.
"Other machines take from six to eight minutes, but ours gives an instant reading," says Professor Al-Fagih. "We still haven't made a profit or even broken even yet, but I don't think this is too far off. Once we break even, we will sell, or join a larger company with a greater distribution network or we will make our own, and this is where we make our profit." In the meantime, Dallah is continuing its efforts to promote invention in healthcare technology.
