UAE-based LIFEPharma is in advanced talks with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies to secure the rights to produce affordable drug products locally.
Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, chairman and managing director of VPS Healthcare and founder of LIFEPharma, said these licences would be granted during the latter half of this year and next year, with the products launched in 2022 and 2023.
He said that LIFEPharma is also in the process of obtaining the necessary licences from the UAE Ministry of Health to register these drugs, to produce local alternatives in the UAE and then distribute them in other countries.
Vayalil said the UAE pharmaceutical industry has strong potential to expand globally in addition to manufacturing high quality medicines locally.
He said: “The pharmaceutical industry is an innovative and value-based growth engine of the UAE economy, combining advanced technologies with the expertise of highly skilled professionals. The sector enables the UAE to compete successfully in the global market and draw on its strong current commercial and logistics infrastructure and future growth strategy.”
He said the LIFEPharma facility, with the help of the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention, has manufactured and successfully launched Avilife, a medicine used to treat patients with Covid-19.
LIFEPharma also produces other medicines for the treatment of coronavirus such as Panalife, C-Vit and Henacyl which are widely prescribed and among the MOHAP approved treatment guidelines to treat mild to moderate cases of Covid-19.
Vayalil said: “LIFEPharma intends to develop innovative drugs exclusively. We are focused on entering a high-barrier product market, which was previously protected by intellectual property (IP) rights for the last 10 years, to bring affordable healthcare to the local community.”
LIFEPharma also plans to enter six new markets by next year, increasing the number of countries it already exports to from 12 to 18.
The company began commercial operations in Dubai in 2014 and its manufacturing facility currently has a production capacity of 2.2 billion tablets, 600 million capsules and 30 million bottles of liquid medicine.
Vayalil said LIFEPharma has pledged exports of 200 million doses a year to North America and Canada, in addition to 250,000 units of pain management and electrolyte doses which are exported to Australia.
The company aims to achieve a net sales of AED200 million from the domestic market and through exports this fiscal year, of which 75 percent sales are in the local market.
Vayalil said LIFEPharma aims to reach a sales volume of AED300 million and increase the volume of exports to 40 percent of the total production.
LIFEPharma is affiliated with VPS Healthcare Group, which has 25 hospitals in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Europe.
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