GDEcD Exporter Spotlight: One-World, Inc.

A Q&A interview with Katy Kleinmann, Vice President of Business Development

County: Dekalb 

Industry: Life Sciences

One-World, Inc. is a leading expert in developing, carrying out and managing global early access and ethical pre-license sales of needed pharmaceuticals, allowing patients around the world to gain access to life-saving medicines. 

How long has your company been exporting?

One-World has been exporting since it was founded 20 years ago and it is the basis of all the work we do. Since then, we have exported pharmaceutical products to more than 100 countries. 

What motivated your company to start selling internationally?

Our company was originally founded to sell pharmaceutical products internationally in order to meet the strong interest from foreign countries looking to import U.S. FDA-approved products, which are globally known for being both high-quality and innovative. Typically, pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to sell a drug that has not yet been approved, but many countries have a temporary law that allows for sales during the approval process. One-World helps bridge that gap and makes the drug available for the time being. The majority of the products we ship are high-value, life-saving products and often mean the difference between life and death for the patients they reach. 

How has GDEcD’s International Trade Team helped your company? 

The market research and tradeshow opportunities from GDEcD’s international trade division has been incredibly valuable in helping us generate new customers in markets around the world. For example, GDECD’s trade team helped kick off our business strategy in Brazil, a market that held a lot of opportunity for us. My colleague, Elaine Silva, traveled with GDEcD’s Brazilian trade representative to attend Hospitalar, one of the largest healthcare tradeshows in Brazil. The Georgia trade rep helped introduce us to potential customers and provided valuable background information on the pharmaceutical import market in Brazil. Attending that tradeshow ultimately opened the doors for us to begin exporting to Brazil, which has now become one of our biggest markets.  

We have also worked closely with Kerry Barnett, GDEcD’s International Trade Manager that covers the life sciences sector. Kerry connected us to Georgia’s representative in Korea who provided significant market research and introductions to key buyers that led to significant sales growth in that market. Today, Asia continues to be one of our growing markets. The Department’s trade team has been instrumental in helping us make connections in many of our growth markets.

What advice do you have for companies that are just starting to export?

The biggest lesson we have learned is to really take your time and get to know the country and the culture where you are doing business, because business practices vary depending on the market. We place a high value on going to visit the potential customer in their country to better build that personal relationship and understand their culture and what is important to them. It makes a huge difference in making our international strategy successful.

It is also important to keep in mind that the process to export requires patience and that you can’t expect things to happen too quickly. The average time it takes for our company to make a sale in a new market from the first contact is about three years. Some of this is specific to the field we work in, but it is an important lesson for anyone interested in doing business internationally.

And lastly, remember to do your research to make sure you are doing business with the right people. On multiple occasions we have relied on GDEcD’s trade team to run due diligence checks on potential customers to makes sure they are in good financial standing and aren’t subject to any export restrictions by the U.S. government.

 

What has been your biggest export achievement?

A significant achievement of ours is that we have been able to export to new countries every year, which has allowed us to grow consistently as a company. Our biggest achievement, though, is really what we accomplish day-to-day. Every day we send pharmaceutical products to countries around the world, and behind each shipment is a patient in need, waiting to receive a treatment that will either save, extend or significantly improve their quality of life. Knowing that we are able to make a difference in the lives of patients all over the world is such a rewarding part of what we do as a company.

To learn more about One-World Inc. visit www.one-world-inc.com. 

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Are you a Georgia business looking for help growing your international sales? Find out how Georgia’s International Trade Team can help at Georgia.org/Trade.