Patients in the region, including the UAE, are consuming medication in development of which they have not been adequately represented, said experts.
While the UAE leads in the region in research and development and clinical trial-related investment for the pharma industry, more patient representation is needed.
"A total of 57 clinical trials have been done in the UAE," said Dr Amin Al Amiri, assistant undersecretary for the Public Health Policy and Licensing Sector.
Compared to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the UAE has 6.2 number of trials per million population, making it the highest number of clinical research programmes sponsored in the region. In Saudi, 48 clinical trials were done at 1.8 trials per million and in Egypt, it was also 57, though the number of trials was at 0.5 per million population.
Addressing the 2018 Clinical Research Forum on Wednesday, organised by the Ministry of Health and Prevention, experts said the region urgently needs to increase current levels of industry clinical trials. "We need to promote the UAE as a research and trial location," said Dr Vladimir Misik, CEO, partner and founder, SanaClis, LongTaal, Slovakia.
"The UAE needs to increase clinical trial levels by 20 times to ensure adequate representation of the patients in the development of new pharmaceuticals," he said.
According to a report presented at the World Economic Forum last year, billions of dollars were spent on developing drugs. It is estimated that only five in 5,000 compounds that enter pre-clinical testing make it to human testing, and only one of those five maybe safe and effective enough to reach pharmacy shelves.
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