São Paulo – United Arab Emirates-based Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (Julphar), based in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, will start the commercial production of COVID-19 vaccines in April 2021. In a statement submitted to Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the company confirmed that it has entered into an agreement with G42 Medication Trading to produce the vaccines from China’s Sinopharm. The UAE vaccine will be called Hayat-Vax.
“The company entered into a contract manufacturing agreement with G42 Medications Trading LLC for the production of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinopharm and is expected to start commercial production in April 2021,” the statement read.
The UAE launched a new project on Sunday, 28, to begin manufacturing vaccines within the country. The “Life Sciences and Vaccine Manufacturing in the UAE” is a joint project by the UAE’s Group 42 (G42) and China’s Sinopharm CNBG. G42 is an Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company.
Hayat-Vax is the first COVID-19 vaccine production line in the UAE and comes shortly after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi stated that China and the UAE would collaborate on an affordable vaccine that would be made available to countries that need it especially within the Middle East and Africa.
The first vaccine approved for emergency use within the UAE was the Chinese-made Sinopharm’s. The UAE was the first country in the world to approve the Chinese vaccine on December 9, 2020 after initiating its trial in the country on June 23, 2020.
The UAE reported an overall case count of 457,071 COVID-19 cases and 1,481 deaths.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
