25 Years Transforming
Access to Healthcare

Joseph Saba, MD, is an infectious disease physician working on the frontline of access to healthcare since the early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Throughout his career, Joseph has led numerous discussions with pharmaceutical companies, governments and other key players across the healthcare community to drive access to innovative medications in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs). He is known internationally for establishing the first antiretroviral drug access program through the UNAIDS Drug Access Initiative, making it possible for critical medicines to reach patients in need during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and pioneering a new generation of treatment access solutions for LMICs.

In 1993, Joseph joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as the WHO Focal Point for the National Plan for HIV Vaccine Development. From 1994-1995, he worked with the WHO Global Program on AIDS in Rwanda and later supported HIV vaccine research efforts in Geneva. Following his time at WHO, he worked at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS in the Department of Policy, Strategy and Research, where he led a global research effort focused on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS, as well as the groundbreaking PETRA study, a multi-centre clinical trial on PMTCT treatment in Africa.

For the last twenty-three years, Joseph has served as Chief Executive Officer of Axios International, a healthcare access company he co-founded, which has developed programs to improve patient access to healthcare in more than 100 countries.

He completed his medical degree at St. Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon), and his Infectious Diseases specialty, along with a certificate of Medical Statistics, at the University Paris VI (France). Joseph also holds a Master of Communications and Medical Management (MSc) from the Superior Business School (Paris, France). He is fluent in Arabic, French and English.

Joseph has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek and Pharmaceutical Executive, among others, and has published widely in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Cliona leads the strategic design and operational delivery of a global Support Services function – HR, Finance, IT, Compliance, Communications, and Corporate Governance. She provides leadership and management to ensure that the business has effective people, operational controls, and administrative and reporting procedures in place.

Cliona joined Axios in 2009 and initially, her focus was in the areas of Performance Management, Recruitment, Executive Coaching, and Reward.

In 2014 her focus expanded to all Support Services including Finance, and the governance wellbeing of Axios. With a keen eye for detail, Cliona ensures Support Services are well placed for a sustainable and growing business.  She has led strategic capacity building and development for a range of clients and projects. As an accredited Executive Coach Cliona has worked closely with Senior Executives internationally.

Prior to joining Axios, Cliona worked as a Senior Consultant with Watson Wyatt working on several consultancy assignments across a broad range of clients internationally. Prior to Watson Wyatt Cliona worked with Siemens Business Services.

Cliona obtained a BA (Hons) Psychology and English, H. Dip in Business and Financial Information Systems from University College Cork, and holds an MSc in Human Resource Leadership from Sheffield Hallam University. Cliona is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development and has trained with the Irish Management Institute in Executive Coaching.

Based in Dubai, UAE, Anas oversees business development, stakeholder relationships, and project implementation for all Axios’ healthcare access programs in the Greater Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Anas has a well-rounded portfolio of healthcare experience, including clinical, program design and implementation, monitoring, and compliance. Anas joined Axios International of MENA in 2011 at the time, it was a one-member team and has been instrumental in growing MENA operations and expanding its footprint in the region.

In his role, Anas has been successful in widening the organization’s presence to expand to 16 locations, including Jordan, Qatar, Morocco, Iraq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Egypt, and Pakistan, with regional headquarters based in Dubai, UAE.

Over the past 10 years, he has delivered access programs across the MENA region with a majority of the Top 20 global pharmaceutical companies and overseen multi-million-dollar budgets. These programs have covered ophthalmology, oncology, hematology, diabetes, pulmonary, immunology, rheumatology, dermatology, and immunotherapy.

He is a strong advocate for addressing patient needs and continuously innovating new access solutions. He has guided and improved innovative access programs, including Access to Diagnosis, Access to Treatment, Access to Adherence, and Patient Homecare solutions outside the hospital environment addressing healthcare accessibility challenges for over 19,000 of patients.

Anas has worked in the medical field as a practitioner and an academic. His previous roles have included Senior Health Officer at the Academy Abu Dhabi, Manager of the Male Geriatric ICU Unit in the UAE Ibrahim bin Obied Hospital, Nursing Lecturer at the Vinayaka Missions University Campus, and Clinical Instructor at the International Academy for Health Sciences (Saudi Arabia) and at Al-Balqa Applied University (Jordan).

He is a Lead Auditor certified by the International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA) and a Certified Compliance Officer by the International Compliance & Anti-Money Laundering Society (ICAS). As a Certified Lead Auditor, he has worked with national health authorities, private and public companies, charities, and patient associations across MENA to implement global best practices.

Anas holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Vinayaka Missions University (India) and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Jordan.

Born in the UAE, Anas is fluent in English and Arabic.

Located in Dubai (UAE), Roshel oversees high-performing consulting and operational teams in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia; and spearheads Axios’ internationalization strategies. As a certified Lead Auditor and experienced leader in healthcare management, Roshel has designed and successfully delivered large-scale patient access solutions globally for 20 of the world’s most prominent pharmaceutical companies and has overseen the development of flexible and adaptive market access strategies that successfully responded to complex healthcare needs of a diverse range of markets.

Roshel spent her career developing business improvement solutions to drive impact for governments, international private and public companies, and start-ups across Europe and the Middle East. Prior to joining Axios International, she was General Manager at First Gulf Pharmaceutical Centre, where she led the overall business and worked closely with European and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) partners to develop a post-acute and rehabilitation hospital. Roshel has also worked with several private equity firms on operational process improvements and portfolio optimization.

Roshel holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Medical Biotechnology from the University of L’Aquila (Italy) and a Global MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School (UK).

Roshel is also an Adjunct Academic on the Strategy and Competition Module of the Global MBA program at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Raphael Itah is the Director of Digital at Axios International, where he leads technical and functional teams who take Axios and all its partners through digital transformation. ​

Throughout his career, Raphael has assembled and led multicultural teams who strive in a creative and dynamic context and across the digital value chain. He has successfully undertaken large scale transformation projects with all the major pharmaceutical companies.​

Prior to joining Axios, Raphael was a management and digital consultant with Accenture Interactive where he led the content and quality teams on Pharma client transformation projects.​

Raphael holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Management & Political Science from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business (New York University, USA), and a Computer Science degree from the Université de Montpellier (France).

Based in Dublin, Ireland, Rita Leen serves as Finance Director at Axios International. In this role, Rita is responsible for  overseeing all financial functions across the company, including across Axios 30+ country offices, leading continuous improvements in financial and operational processes.

Rita has more than 15 years of accounting experience, working in a range of industries and settings. Prior to Axios, she served as General Manager at a leading tourism company in La Paz, Bolivia  and as Financial Controller at Papua New Guinea’s number one communications provider. In this role, she managed a finance department of approximately 60 people in an organization with turnover in excess of US$500m. In addition, Rita has served as financial controller at several Ireland and Australian-based companies in the retail, online marketing, engineering and banking industries.

Rita is a member of the Irish Taxation Institute (ITI) and Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA). She holds a bachelor degree in accounting and finance from Dublin City University.

Sowedi Muyingo is Executive Director of Medical Access Uganda Limited (MAUL). In 1998, Sowedi spearheaded the creation and establishment of MAUL under the UNAIDS Drug Access Initiative1 and has since led the transition of the organization from a fully-funded project to a self-sustaining, innovative one-stop-shop for healthcare supply chain management.

With more than 20 years of experience in global health management across both the public and private sectors, he is responsible for leading the organization’s strategic vision in partnership with the Board of Directors and currently oversees all operational departments, including procurement, warehousing, distribution, sales and marketing, project management, consulting and technical assistance.

Prior to MAUL, Sowedi served as Vice President at Axios International, a global healthcare consulting firm, where he led the design and implementation of several access programs for HIV/AIDS and cancer across Africa and other developing countries. In this role, he setup PEPFAR-funded Supply Chain Management system in Zambia, Tanzania and Nigeria and coordinated the implementation of the NIH-funded cost effectiveness study, PANCEA, in Uganda and South Africa. Sowedi also previously worked as a Logistics and Financial management Specialist with the USAID-DISH II project, coordinating district-level strategic planning, budgeting, financial/grant management, training and monitoring for 12 USAID-DISH supported districts, and as a Drug Registration and Assessment Pharmacist at the Uganda National Drug Regulatory Authority.

Sowedi began his career in the private sector as a Pharmacist Director and Medical Representative with Mepha LTF and Novartis, where he managed procurement, marketing and distribution of a range of pharmaceuticals from distributors across the globe.

He holds a Bachelor in Pharmacy and a Master of Business Administration from Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda), as well as a Master of Public Health from John Hopkins University (United States). Sowedi has also completed courses in International Project Management from INSEAD (France) and Health Systems Research and Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). Originally from Uganda, he is fluent in English, Luganda and conversant in Swahili.