Khaled Al Khawaldeh (Abu Dhabi)
Representatives from pharmaceutical companies big and small descended on Abu Dhabi this week to attend Abu Dhab Global Healthcare Week 2024, with many looking to set up a research and manufacturing capabilities in the emirate.
Whilst many pharmaceutical companies already have a presence in the country, much of the sector revolves around sales offices and local manufacturing facilities for medicines. However, more sophisticated, higher-value-chain activities like research and development, are usually kept oversees.
Speaking to Aletihad on Wednesday, Neil K. Warma, the President and CEO of Mongoose Bio, an early-stage clinical company that is pioneering “T cell precision” cancer therapy, said the time is right to bring R&D to the country.
“What we’re thinking about for Mongoose Bio is really this idea of having a centre of excellence in science and cancer driven research,” Neil told Aletihad.
“I think it’s the combination of the talented people here in UAE, but also bringing in the scientists and the clinicians, from other countries to collaborate together that makes it viable. I most certainly think what I’ve seen in the past three or four days, the discussions I’ve had, the level of expertise, that has kind of very recently come here and established in UAE is remarkable.”
The UAE’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry has been steadily growing over the last decade with over 2,500 medicines produced locally, according to data from Abu Dhabi Holding company ADQ. The data suggests that between 2010 and 2023, grew from just four to 23.
Recently, state-owned wealth fund, Mubadala acquired KELIX bio, a specialty pharmaceutical business focused on delivering complex generics across emerging markets in a move that they said would help diversify the country’s economy and cement it as a hub for life sciences and pharma manufacturing.
“Certainly beyond sales, there’s multiple different components. There’s scientific experts research clinical development, CMC manufacturing all that is certainly present and should be present in UAE,” Neil explained.
“The UAE can act as the kind of the central point for this part of the world to expand outwards, there’s so much talent and determination which is really impressive here.”
Mongoose Bio are currently in talks with a number of academic and healthcare institutions, including Cleveland Clinic and several universities from around Abu Dhabi. Neil says that the company hopes that it will be able to bring its solution to the local market and find partners open-minded enough to take on the new frontier in medicine.
“For us, it’s exciting to be at this stage of our development. We’ve really kind of just come out of ‘stealth mode’, and we’ve just established the company. So, for us we want to kind of leverage global expertise, something a little different than US biotech companies,” he said.
“I think we see ourselves different, different with our cancer approach, very novel, and I think different in our business approach. We want to really move the technology and the science outside of the US and to be very collaborative with UAE and other parts of the world.”