Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Health and G42 Healthcare agree to boost collaboration

The two entities will work towards finding solutions to treat chronic diseases

The partnership between Mubadala Health and G42 Healthcare will pave the way for collaboration in various clinical and screening programmes, as well as scientific projects. Photo: Mubadala

Mubadala Health signed a preliminary agreement with G42 Healthcare to boost collaboration in the healthcare sector and find innovative solutions to treat chronic diseases.

The two entities will collaborate on various clinical and screening programmes, as well as on new scientific projects that “will have a lasting impact on the population’s health”, as part of the agreement, the companies said on Monday.

“The collaboration with G42 Healthcare will help us to further uncover genetic links to chronic diseases,” said Hasan Al Nowais, chief executive of Mubadala Health.

“The partnership will enable us to offer our patients deep, targeted insights into specific areas of the genome to assess their risk of developing certain diseases or to diagnose genetic conditions.”

Mubadala Health is the healthcare unit of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investment fund Mubadala Investment Company,

The sovereign fund, which has an asset base of Dh894 billion ($243.4bn), invests on behalf of Abu Dhabi's government.

Mubadala, which is driving the emirate’s efforts to diversify its revenue base, is pivoting towards investments in health care, life sciences, consumer-focused businesses, renewable energy and the mobility sectors.

In July, it invested $250 million in US biosimulation software company Certara as part of its international healthcare and investment portfolio.

In March, the fund agreed to plough £800m into Britain's life sciences industry over the next five years as part of £1bn deal between the UK and the UAE. The UK's Life Sciences Investment Programme, which was unveiled last year, will contribute £200m to the deal.

Mubadala is also expanding its healthcare portfolio at home with Mubadala Health, having acquired a majority stake in United Eastern Medical Services, which operates a number of hospitals and clinics in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in June.

Mubadala Health operates, manages and develops a portfolio of healthcare assets that includes Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Healthpoint, Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Amana Healthcare, National Reference Laboratory and Capital Health Screening Centre.

G42 Healthcare, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42, established Biogenix Labs, the UAE’s first accredited large-scale throughput Covid-19 laboratory.

It also arranged the 4Humanity clinical trials, the world’s first Phase 3 trial for a vaccine to fight against the coronavirus, with more than 43,000 volunteers taking part.

Investments in pharmaceutical and diagnostics have picked up in the recent months as companies increase their holdings within the healthcare sector.

Earlier this year, state holding company ADQ bought a minority stake in India's Biocon Biologics and acquired Pharmax Pharmaceuticals, a UAE-based generic drugs manufacturer.

The state-owned company also merged its healthcare entities Rafed and Union71 this year with Dubai-based Pure Health – a company that provides Covid-19 screening services – to create a major healthcare support services provider.