A deal has been signed enabling US company Eli Lilly to manufacture weight-loss drugs in the UAE.
Under the agreement with Mubadala Bio, four of the US firm's drugs – including the popular Mounjaro, as well as Foundayo, Lilly’s oral medicine – will be made in the UAE.
Production is expected to start soon, said Hamad Almarzooqi, Mubadala Bio's deputy chief executive, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit on Tuesday.
“They will be contract-manufactured here in the UAE and distributed around the world,” he said.
The agreement will “support reliable access to innovative medicines while strengthening the UAE's role in the global life-sciences supply chain”.
Earlier this year, The National revealed the UAE's efforts to drive down obesity rates could deliver a $51 billion boost to productivity, keep the military fighting fit and raise educational standards, according to a report.
About 32 per cent of the UAE population is on course to be obese by 2031. The condition heightens the risk of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.
A joint study by Eli Lilly and market analysts Whiteshield, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, suggests that figure could be reduced to 18 per cent within the same time frame, with accelerated intervention.
The National has also reported how UAE residents have been urged to take weight-loss pills responsibly and on medical advice only.
In June, it was announced the Wegovy weight-loss pill had been approved for use in the UAE. The oral medicine was already being prescribed for weight loss in the UAE, using an injection pen.
Misuse of prescription drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro has surged in recent years, with people turning to the injectable medications for their rapid weight-loss effects.
Health authorities around the world have struggled to contain the use of unregulated off-brand injectables without a prescription for cosmetic purposes, often driven by social-media trends and peer pressure.
Global demand
Mubadala Bio was established in May last year to strengthen medicine security, address prevalent diseases and build domestic expertise. Most pharmaceutical products used in the UAE are imported, Mr Almarzooqi said. The company has a five-year plan to bring that figure down but has yet to set a target publicly.
“Mubadala Bio was created for three reasons: to ensure drug security in the UAE, to address the most prevalent diseases in the UAE, and to build that local ecosystem and talent within the company,” he said.
The company said it had maintained supplies of essential medicines during spells of disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz throughout this year. Before the strait was closed, Mubadala Bio increased stocks of raw materials, arranged alternative shipping routes by air and land, and used other ports in the UAE. Some raw materials were sourced locally.
“Many of our raw materials for essential drugs are manufactured here in the UAE,” Mr Almarzooqi said. “That helped us supply the country … when disruptions were happening.”
The company’s aim, he said, was to make essential medicine available when patients need them, “not delayed, not out of stock, not in a ship somewhere”.
“A patient on dialysis cannot postpone this treatment,” he said. “A patient with diabetes needs continuous assurance of continuity of insulin. A lady who’s getting cancer treatment in a hospital needs assurance that her treatment is available at all times.
“We’re dealing with people’s lives.”
Mubadala Bio runs four manufacturing plants in the UAE. Bioventure Healthcare, in Jebel Ali, makes soft-gelatin capsules and has a high-potency oncology site that also produces hormones.
It has launched more than four oncology products and female fertility hormones, with more in the pipeline, Mr Almarzooqi said.
He added the agreements with international drug manufacturers were not all about importing medicine. Companies had chosen the UAE, he said, “because of the talent that we have, because of the connectivity and the outreach that we have and because of the quality of the finished goods that we produce”.
Building trust in locally made generic medicine would depend on how well the products worked, he said. “We are very comfortable that our products meet the highest global standards,” he added.