Tunis — Dr Abderrahamane Abdelkefi is the recipient of the 2008 Sanofi-Aventis Prize in medical research for his research on "randomized multi-centric study on patients affected with multiple myeloma".

The Prize was given to its recipient during a ceremony organized in Gammarth on Thursday. Several professionals from the health sector, hospital directors and physicians attended the event.

Dr Abdelkefi's research was selected among 13 other studies by a jury chaired by Dr Mohamed Gueddiche , Minister Advisor to the President of the Republic and composed of eminent professors of medicine.

Mr Mondher Zenaidi, the Minister of Health stressed the interest that President Ben Ali grants to the medicinal sector and medical research. He also said that the presence of the company's Laboratories in Tunisia testifies to the trust foreign enterprises have in Tunisian competencies, as well as the favourable investment climate existing in Tunisia.

On his part Mr Chokri Jeribi, the medical manager of Sanofi-Aventis said that since its inception in 1994, the prize aims at rewarding medical research with an interest to public health at the national or international scale.

Sanofi- aventis has a pharmaceutical production unit in Megrine, near Tunis. The unit employs 316 people.

It controls 17% of the market and commercializes some 300medicinal products , 70% of which are made in Tunisia.