DUBAI - The Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, recently held a virtual meeting with a number of local pharmaceutical factories to discuss the drafting of a well-rounded strategy to increase the drug production share in the UAE.

Chaired by Dr. Amin Hussein Al Amiri, the Assistant Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s Public Health Policy and Licenses, the meeting was attended by around 17 heads and CEOs of local pharmaceutical companies.

The meeting touched on the importance of fulfilling the needs of public and private hospitals and health centres from the pharmaceutical products, especially after the pandemic, encourage the pharmaceutical plants to enter into local or international partnerships to help them manufacture safe vaccines.

This comes as part of MoHAP’s keenness to enhance the dialogue with pharmaceutical companies and learn more about their perspectives, as well as to consolidate the effective partnership in the pharmaceutical industry and create a joint prioritised agenda.

The need to better focus on manufacturing specialised drugs to increase the number of pharmaceutical products in the country was also discussed, besides utilising the AI and biotechnologies in drug manufacturing, thus reducing production costs and enhancing the quality and efficiency of pharmaceutical products.

"Such events help support MoHAP’s plans and programmes to enhance drug sustainability," said Dr. Al Amiri, adding that the meeting shed light on the importance of creating ambitious plans for taking the local pharmaceutical industry to the next level based on a joint framework and in accordance with the UAE’s directives and visions.

The meeting also underlined the importance of the scientific research in the pharmaceutical industry, the transformation of innovative biomedicine technologies to the labs of local pharma companies, expanding export markets to access new countries, and supporting local factories with the raw material.

Al Amiri went on saying, "From a national perspective, MoHAP remains committed to reinforcing capabilities of local drug factories with all logistic and technology capacities, besides the sophisticated legislations and regulations that stimulate investments and the technical assistance required to promote drug manufacturing locally." For their part, the participants lauded MoHAP’s efforts to achieve an effective partnership in the pharmaceutical industry and develop this vital sector, stressing that this boosts the pharmaceutical security and strengthens the people’s confidence in the local pharmaceutical industry.

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2020.