UAE seeks investment and cooperation with Indian pharma

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sought Indian investment in the pharmaceutical sector.

Amin Alamiri, the UAE’s assistant undersecretary of health policy and licensing at the Ministry of Healthy and Prevention (Mohap) said at a virtual healthcare conference in Dubai that the nation has "great cooperation" with India, and that the UAE would be eager to support any Indian pharma or medical industry that was looking to "invest with us."

The UAE government is looking to provide incentives, including financial contributions, and is ready to make efforts to create a full ecosystem to support Indian generic drug manufacturing companies having strong research and development facilities. The UAE has also expressed a strong desire to set up manufacturing facilities for vaccines by Indian companies.

As key stakeholders from UAE and India gathered together virtually to deliberate on exploring new avenues for partnership between the two countries, the importance of countries cooperating in the pharma and medical sector and how affordable, world-class services could be made available to the common man were among the many topics of discussion.

Need for deeper engagement highlighted by pandemic

Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor said the close cooperation between the two countries during the COVID-19 pandemic was encouraging. The pandemic has highlighted the need for deeper engagement between health systems as the world today is more inter-dependent and connected and people work in multiple geographies, he said.

The discussions that had taken place at the first UAE-India Healthcare Conference 2020 were also highlighted. The Indian ambassador to the UAE is counting on the support of the overseas community to reverse the tide of the deadly virus that has hit the country hard.

Not just the UAE, but the world has been witness to the vital role played by the Indian pharmaceutical sector in meeting the unprecedented demand for medicines, said Mr Kapoor.