Senior Abu Dhabi Life Sciences Delegation Visits San Diego
  • Council Events, Past Events

Share

From L to R: U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council President Danny Sebright; Undersecretary of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi H.E. Dr. Noura Al Ghaithi

“Abu Dhabi is engineering the future of health by fostering a world-class breeding ground for life sciences development.” – H.E. Dr. Noura Al Ghaithi

The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council hosted a reception on Monday, June 22, 2026, at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego in honor of a senior life sciences delegation led by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi. The delegation is visiting San Diego from June 22-25 to attend BIO 2026, the largest life sciences trade show and conference in the United States.

The delegation consists of over 50 senior government officials and business executives from Abu Dhabi, including representatives from Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH), Khalifa University, Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (KEZAD), M42, Mubadala BIO, New York University Abu Dhabi, and various PureHealth portfolio companies –  Daman Insurance, SEHA, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), and Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC). 
     
H.E. Dr. Noura Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, emphasized that the delegation’s mission is to deepen U.S.-U.A.E. collaboration, expand research partnerships, and demonstrate Abu Dhabi’s emergence as a global hub for developing, testing, and scaling next-generation health technologies.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Department of Health officials noted that they expect to sign more than 15 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with partners during BIO 2026, underscoring Abu Dhabi’s commitment to accelerating innovation through global collaboration.
  • Department leadership reiterated a clear message to U.S. biotechnology and life sciences companies: bring innovative discoveries to Abu Dhabi, and the emirate will provide the regulatory support, infrastructure, clinical capabilities, and investment partnerships necessary to validate, scale, and deploy those innovations across the region and beyond.
  • Abu Dhabi is increasingly serving as a gateway for deploying innovative therapies and technologies across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, providing companies with access to rapidly growing regional healthcare markets from a single innovation platform.


Data and Scale:

  • H.E. Dr. Noura highlighted the significant progress of the Emirates Genome Program, which has now successfully mapped one million genomes, creating one of the world’s largest national genomic databases.
  • H.E. Dr. Noura discussed the continued expansion of Malaffi, Abu Dhabi’s health information exchange platform, which has become fully integrated into the emirate’s healthcare infrastructure.
  • Her Excellency noted Abu Dhabi’s deployment of CRISPR-based therapies and genomic medicine initiatives to support advanced research, alongside the complete digitization of health administration systems across the emirate. 


Advanced Infrastructure:

  • H.E. Dr. Noura provided updates on the Health, Endurance, Longevity, and Medicine (HELM) Cluster, Abu Dhabi’s flagship life sciences initiative that brings together research institutions, healthcare providers, manufacturers, technology companies, and investors within a unified innovation ecosystem.
  • The HELM cluster is intended to accelerate translational research, advanced therapeutics, precision medicine, AI-enabled healthcare, and biomanufacturing while attracting leading international companies to establish regional operations in Abu Dhabi.
  • Abu Dhabi offers world-class clinical infrastructure, internationally accredited hospitals, and research institutions capable of conducting sophisticated clinical trials and validation studies.
  • The emirate’s healthcare system, anchored by organizations including M42 and PureHealth, provides companies with access to large patient populations, advanced diagnostics capabilities, and integrated digital health platforms.
  • H.E. Dr. Noura also highlighted the DOH’s close partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), which is actively mobilizing capital and providing investment incentives to attract innovative life sciences companies.
  • The DOH and ADIO are working to create a seamless pathway for companies seeking to establish research operations and scale manufacturing capabilities.


Regulation and Enablement:

  • The Department of Health Abu Dhabi is committed to creating a regulatory framework that supports the entire innovation lifecycle—from drug discovery and pre-clinical research to clinical trials, regulatory approval, and commercialization.
  • H.E. Dr. Noura underscored its successful use of regulatory sandboxes, allowing companies to test emerging technologies and novel healthcare solutions within supervised environments before broader deployment. These frameworks have become an important mechanism for accelerating the adoption of AI-enabled healthcare applications, digital therapeutics, and precision medicine technologies.
  • The DOH reaffirmed Abu Dhabi’s strong commitment to intellectual property protection, emphasizing that innovators can confidently develop and commercialize new technologies within the emirate’s legal and regulatory framework.


U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council President Danny Sebright confirmed with H.E. Dr. Noura the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council’s support, partnership, and participation in Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, which will take place from 20-22 October 2026 in Abu Dhabi.

To learn more about the U.A.E. healthcare and life sciences sector, please read the 2026 edition of the U.A.E. Healthcare and Life Sciences Sector Report on our website. To learn more about the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council’s programming in the healthcare and life sciences sector, please contact Mr. Adam Karadsheh at akaradsheh@usuaebusiness.org.