Middle East Health: What were Arcera’s key objectives for participating in Make it in the Emirates?
Isabel Afonso: Make it in the Emirates is one of the UAE’s most important platforms for demonstrating how national industrial ambition is being translated into practical capability, and Arcera’s participation reflects the increasingly strategic role life sciences plays within that agenda. Our primary objective was to demonstrate how innovation, strategic partnerships, and advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing can strengthen healthcare resilience while contributing meaningfully to the UAE’s long‑term industrial and economic priorities.
To do this, we focus our participation on advancing strategic partnerships that strengthen the foundations of a locally anchored life sciences sector. For example, we announced a partnership with the Emirates Drug Establishment that aims to strengthen national talent development, manufacturing capacity, and supply security, all of which directly benefit the healthcare system. Prior to the event, we also entered into a strategic collaboration with Fosun Pharma to create a long‑term pipeline, technology development, and deeper focus in neuroscience, positioning Abu Dhabi as a bridge between Asian pharma innovation and global markets. These are all structural partnerships designed to compound value over time.
Middle East Health: How does this support your long-term UAE life sciences strategy?
Isabel Afonso: Arcera’s growth is closely aligned with Abu Dhabi’s broader ambitions to strengthen the UAE’s position as a meaningful contributor to the future of global healthcare, not only through pharmaceutical manufacturing, but through broader ecosystem development. This means moving beyond traditional pharmaceutical commercialisation and investing in the full life sciences value chain, including manufacturing, scientific capability, clinical research, strategic partnerships, and talent development.
A major part of this is to ensure that critical capabilities are increasingly built within the UAE itself. Our partnerships with Fosun Pharma and the Emirates Drug Establishment, for example, are important because they help accelerate that effort by advancing local innovation, expanding manufacturing maturity and strengthening the scientific and industrial foundations required for long-term competitiveness.
Looking ahead, access to advanced therapies will remain equally important. Arcera is committed to ensuring that the medicines we develop and commercialise continue reaching patients across the UAE and the wider markets we serve across the region and beyond. Our recent progress, including introducing advanced therapies addressing antimicrobial resistance and securing rights to innovative treatments in areas such as Alzheimer’s disease, reflects our broader commitment to addressing critical healthcare needs while building a life sciences platform capable of shaping regional and global healthcare outcomes over the long term.
Middle East Health: How is Arcera contributing to local pharmaceutical manufacturing and self-sufficiency?
Isabel Afonso: Arcera’s contribution to local pharmaceutical manufacturing is rooted in the belief that medicine security is both a patient safety priority and a strategic national capability. More than 40% of our UAE portfolio is already manufactured locally, supported by a broader international platform that develops and commercialises more than 2,200 medicines across over 60 markets. This combination of local production capacity and international operational scale helps strengthen immediate supply continuity while laying the foundation for a more resilient, self-sufficient healthcare system over the long term.
Our partnership with the Emirates Drug Establishment is helping accelerate this further by expanding local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, strengthening the UAE’s strategic medical stockpile, and supporting workforce development through Emiratization-focused initiatives. These efforts are designed not only to increase production, but to deepen the broader industrial, regulatory, and human infrastructure required for sustainable pharmaceutical self-sufficiency.
Ultimately, Arcera’s role is about contributing to build an integrated life sciences ecosystem where local manufacturing, strategic supply resilience, and long-term capability development work together. By strengthening domestic production while maintaining global standards, we are contributing to a healthcare system that is more secure, competitive, and better positioned to meet future national healthcare needs.
Middle East Health: How is Arcera using AI or digital technologies in healthcare?
Isabel Afonso: The work across digital technologies and AI is changing the way we operate, bringing greater speed, visibility, and scientific depth to our organisation.
Arcera is building a strong foundation, including data and applies AI where it drives measurable value, with a strong emphasis on governance, trust, and system impact rather than experimentation for its own sake. Across our operations, Arcera is deploying AI‑powered commercial and operational platforms that enable predictive analytics, omnichannel engagement, and faster, data‑driven decision‑making, while in manufacturing, AI and machine learning ‑ driven process optimisation is enabling real‑time production adjustments to improve reliability, quality, and efficiency.
Additionally, we are exploring opportunities AI in healthcare that combine population-level genomic data with AI-driven analytical capability to advance what is possible, particularly in clinical development. The availability of this data, combined with strong government investment in health infrastructure in genetics, creates an opportunity that does not exist in many places in the world.
Middle East Health: Which markets are driving growth for Arcera in the region?
Isabel Afonso: Within our META region, Arcera’s presence spans across 13 countries and is supported by more than 500 colleagues and a network of over 20 distribution partners. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the most significant markets in terms of both scale and strategic priority. The UAE is our home market and the anchor of our localisation strategy, while Saudi Arabia is the largest pharmaceutical market in the GCC and one where we see considerable opportunity to reach more patients and growth, as the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 continues to drive investment in healthcare infrastructure and local manufacturing capability.
Beyond the Gulf, Egypt is an important market through our large legacy businesses, which brings decades of strong relationships with healthcare providers, regulators, and patients across North Africa. That depth of presence provides a strong foundation for growth across the wider region. Additionally, across Sub-Saharan Africa there is a rising demand for reliable medicine supply, expanding healthcare systems, and increasing government investment in patient access that all lead to significant long-term opportunity. These are markets where our scale and commercial infrastructure create a real advantage, and where translating scientific progress into real-world access has the most direct impact on patients.
Middle East Health: What are Arcera’s investment priorities in the UAE over the next few years?
Isabel Afonso: Arcera’s investment priorities in the UAE are focused on strengthening the full life sciences value chain in ways that support both national healthcare resilience and long-term sector competitiveness. Access to more innovative medicines for unmet needs in key therapeutic areas such as Neuroscience, Cardiometaboloic among others, is our first priority. Manufacturing expansion remains important, particularly in therapeutic areas where stronger domestic capability can improve medicine security and reduce external supply chain vulnerability. At the same time, we will continue to increase our investments in scientific capability, clinical development infrastructure, digital health, AI-driven innovation, and workforce development because building a local competitive life sciences platform with global impact requires an integrated ecosystem.
This is why strategic partnerships with organisations such as the Emirates Drug Establishment and Fosun Pharmaare so important. These collaborations help accelerate, innovation capacity, manufacturing maturity, talent development, creating the broader infrastructure required for sustainable long-term growth. At the same time, Abu Dhabi, as the location for our global headquarters, offers a uniquely supportive environment where sovereign ambition, industrial policy, and healthcare priorities are increasingly aligned. This enables patient capital to be deployed with long-term strategic confidence.
Overall, our focus is on ensuring Arcera continues to scale as one of the platforms through which Abu Dhabi strengthens its position as a globally relevant life sciences hub. This means disciplined investment in innovation, infrastructure, partnerships, talent, that can support both local resilience and international competitiveness, while helping shape the future of healthcare from the UAE outward.
