Abu Dhabi bets on extending longevity with new biotech hub

The UAE, which created a ministry to promote tolerance and coexistence nearly 10 years ago, is now making longer life expectancy into a national project, tapping a young female biochemist to lead its investment campaign.

Fatma Almulla, an expert in Mideast healthcare finance, was appointed this month to head the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s new initiative called HELM, which stands for Health, Endurance, Longevity and Medicine. The Mubadala sovereign wealth fund is a strategic partner.

In the new post, Almulla, 31, will seek to develop a cluster of alliances with some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies and healthcare firms – part of an effort to make the UAE a world leader in medical innovation. HELM aims to raise more than $11 billion in investment over the next 20 years.

“The UAE has the right to win in this global marathon,” Almulla said in an interview with The Circuit last week in Abu Dhabi. “In five years, I expect to see five big pharma companies with production facilities established here.”

Before assuming the HELM post, Almulla spent a decade abroad, earning two master’s degrees at the University of Glasgow and a doctorate in biochemical engineering at University College London. For the past two years, she’s worked at GKSD Investment Holding, a Milan, Italy-based consulting firm focused on healthcare and engineering, where she rose to become Vice President and Advisor to the Chairman on business development in the Middle East.

Almulla, who was named in 2023 to the Forbes Middle East “30 Under 30” list that spotlights the region’s upcoming leaders, said HELM will cultivate biotech startups in the UAE and Middle East through funding, mentorship and networking opportunities.

Fostering research in such fields as genomic medicines and advanced therapies through AI-powered diagnostics, Almulla said, should help people in the UAE lead longer and healthier lives.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How would you describe the mission of the new HELM initiative?

The cluster brings together an integrated and powerful ecosystem designed to drive innovation, attract global investments, and position Abu Dhabi as a global leader in life sciences. In this group, we are welcoming global pharma companies across biotech, pharma, MedTech, and digital health.

Not only big pharma companies. We also work with startups such as biotech and health tech ventures. We help them by linking them to our accelerators, such as Hub71, which gives them access to funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities in the Middle East. At its core, the cluster will enable advancements in genomic medicines, advanced therapies, and AI-powered diagnostics. Our niche is clear in terms of longevity and wellness.

Why is this program important for Abu Dhabi, in particular, and for the UAE and the Middle East overall?

The healthcare sector is very important. The size of this market is expected to grow to 93 trillion dirhams ($25.3 trillion) by 2045. Currently, the life sciences market alone is at 7.7 trillion dirhams and will grow to 40 trillion dirhams by 2045.

The UAE has the right to win in this global marathon. It has many advantages. For example, a third of the world’s population is within a four-hour flight from the UAE. More than 90% of global pharma companies have a presence in the UAE. We also have the second-largest national human genome project. Clinical trial approval in the UAE usually takes no more than 28 days, thanks to our streamlined regulators like the Department of Health.

We are helping these companies access the Middle East, Asia, and Africa regions, who are looking to expand in the region. As I mentioned with the market size and growth, there will be twice the demand for healthcare solutions. That means there will be a need for better and quicker therapies, advanced therapies, and genomic solutions.

How much investment can HELM potentially generate?

We expect the cluster will unlock 42 billion dirhams ($11.4 billion) in investments. It will contribute 94 billion dirhams in incremental GDP growth and create around 30,000 new jobs – all by 2045.

Which major institutions are supporting HELM?

Mubadala is one of our strategic partners. They already have a global life sciences investment platform. ADQ also has major investments in life sciences. Being part of the cluster allows us to leverage those assets. We collaborate with them to assess new investments. One of their recent investments was in a manufacturing platform, and now they are exploring bringing parts of that to Abu Dhabi.

We’re working with UAE University, Khalifa University, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Partnerships with international universities are also in the pipeline. For regulations, we work with the Department of Health and the ADGM. For R&D, we work with Masdar as an innovation center. For infrastructure, we have KIZAD (Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi), Masdar, and the Abu Dhabi Airport Free Zone. For talent development, we partner with universities globally.

We still need to develop specialized programs in areas like biopharma, biotechnology, and genomics. We’re also creating opportunities for postdoctoral and postgraduate studies. Talent development is an integral part of the cluster.  We’ll know more when we announce deals with pharma companies.

In a nutshell, what are your short-term and long-term goals?

Our vision is for 2045. But in five years, I expect to see five big pharma companies with production facilities established here. Building a full substance and formulation facility takes about four to five years. Capital deployment happens immediately.

If we close deals in the next two years, I believe by the five-year mark, we’ll see many of the big pharma companies here. We’re already working with some of them – that will attract others.

The Weekly Circuit: Abu Dhabi draws doctors + Saudi outreach at Milken

👋 Hello from the Middle East! 

This week we’re looking at Saudi Arabia’s effort to navigate the U.S.-China business thicket, Aramco’s $31 billion dividend payout, Aldar’s bankers for a new Islamic bond offering and Riyadh Air’s plans to disrupt the airline industry. But first, doctors and pharma leaders take the stage in Abu Dhabi.

Top minds from medicine and life sciences will convene in the UAE’s capital for Abu Dhabi Global Healthcare Week starting Monday as the country looks to carve a space for itself as a regional hub for cutting-edge research and medical treatment. 

AstraZeneca plans to have a large presence at the conference, with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biotechnology company inking a partnership deal with Mubadala-backed healthcare technology company M42 this week. The pair will work to expand cancer diagnostic capabilities in the Middle East. M42 will sequence genes for hereditary breast cancer to develop personalized care tailored to patients. 

Michel Demare, Chair of the Board at AstraZeneca is slated to attend next week’s conference, alongside Iskra Reic, Executive VP of Vaccines; Sameh El Fangary, Head of the GCC; and Pelin Incesu, VP MEA, among other executives. Another in-demand attendee will be Dr. Laurie Glimcher, President and CEO of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She will be working double-time as a judge at a life sciences startup competition being hosted at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi next week with J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

In Doha, the annual Qatar Economic Forum kicks off on Tuesday with a broad array of Gulf cabinet ministers, central bankers and corporate chiefs taking the stage. Co-branded with Bloomberg – whose editor-in-chief John Mickelthwait and a slew of TV anchors will be conducting onstage interviews – the conference will feature Jenny Johnson, President & CEO of Franklin Templeton, and Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel.

Also joining panels in Qatar will be Darren Woods, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil; Noor Sweid, Founder and Managing Partner of UAE-based Global Ventures; and Gerry Cardinale, Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Redbird Capital Partners.

Meanwhile, tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists starved for funds received a warm invitation at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills to head for the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid al-Falih led the welcome wagon in a conversation on Tuesday with Dina Powell McCormick, Vice Chairman of BDT & MSD Partners, touting his country as a source for financing in fields from artificial intelligence to sustainable energy.

“Globally leading VCs are flocking to the kingdom,” Al-Falih said, adding: “We’re also attracting global innovators to come to the kingdom to scale up their innovative companies and startups.”

Al-Falih, who also pitched Saudi Arabia’s futuristic Neom project and other mega-developments, didn’t stop at the kingdom’s borders, presenting the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council as a safe haven amid conflict across the Middle East.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC are actually leading the world and trying to find pragmatic implementable solutions to address the climate challenge and to create opportunities out of the energy transition,” Al-Falih said, pronouncing the Arabian Peninsula “ripe for benefiting foreign investors.” Later in the day, the Minister stopped by a party hosted by Invest Saudi, the kingdom’s foreign investment arm, held on the sidelines of Milken. 

The Ruler of the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah emirate delivered the opening address at the AIM Conference in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, describing the country’s investment journey from initial oil wealth to its current role as a key source of capital to countries around the world.

“The UAE has always understood that development can, and should, be reciprocal. I am convinced that by joining forces, we can establish a new investment landscape, with growth that is inclusive, sustainable, and as far as possible, universal,” Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi said to the government ministers, investors and executives gathered. 

The AIM Congress, which goes through Thursday, is an initiative of the AIM Global Foundation that looks to formulate investment strategies and policies and enhance international economic relations in the interest of a globalized economy.

Welcome to The Weekly Circuit. Read on for the stories, deals and players at the top of the news across the MENA business landscape. Please send comments and story tips to [email protected].

AMERICAN DREAM

Alat willing to cut China ties to win U.S. trust, CEO says

Saudi Arabia’s new $100 billion investment fund Alat wants to win the trust of both U.S. tech and government leaders, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports.

Special request: Following up on the political terms that paved the way for Microsoft to invest $1.5 billion last month in Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence firm G42, Alat CEO Amit Midha says Saudi Arabia is willing to sell its China holdings if asked by Washington. 

Chain reaction: “So far the requests have been to keep manufacturing and supply chains completely separate, but if the partnerships with China would become a problem for the U.S., we will divest,” he told Bloomberg in an interview on the sidelines of the Milken Conference.

Click here to read the full story.

ARAMCO PAYOUT

Saudi Aramco to pay $31 billion dividend as kingdom seeks to plug budget gap

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, will distribute $31 billion in dividends despite a decline in first-quarter profit, The Circuit reports.

Mind the gap: The payout is critical to the Saudi government, which owns 82% of the company and has reported a deficit for the sixth straight quarter. The kingdom’s budget gap has forced a slowdown in the pace of building NEOM and other ambitious construction projects.

Bottom line: Aramco reported that first-quarter net income declined 14% to $27.3 billion, down from $31.9 billion a year earlier.

Click here to read the full story.

ADQ: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has hired BNP Paribas and Morgan Stanley as bookrunners on the $1 billion IPO it’s planning by the end of 2024, Bloomberg reports. ADQ, the sovereign wealth fund that owns Etihad, previously picked Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc and First Abu Dhabi Bank as lead advisers for the IPO, according to the news agency. The IPO will create the first publicly traded major Gulf hub carrier as Dubai-based rival Emirates also contemplates going public. Etihad posted a five-fold increase in annual profit last year as it expanded to accommodate post-pandemic demand for international travel.

Public Investment Fund: Lucid, the PIF-backed maker of luxury electric cars, reported a higher than expected first-quarter loss of $0.30 a share. Revenue increased 16% to $173 million from the same period a year ago. The California carmaker’s shares fell over 8% on Monday in after-hours trading. And the PIF will not be the only state-backed entity bankrolling Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic roadmap. Saudi banks and the capital market are poised to make substantial contributions, according to S&P Global. 

Mubadala: Aldar Properties, the Mubadala-backed Abu Dhabi real estate developer, has hired HSBC and Standard Chartered as global coordinators for its Islamic bond offering of 10-year green sukuk. Meanwhile, Mubadala Investment Co. has announced an investment alongside Global Infrastructure Partners in Perdaman’s $4.2 billion Western Australia Urea project, representing the largest investment ever made in the Australian fertilizer industry. Emirates Global Aluminum, the UAE’s largest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector and backed by Mubadala, has completed the acquisition of Germany’s Leichtmetall Aluminum as it looks to expand its presence in Europe.

International Holding Co.: Aiden Insight, an AI-powered Board Observer, has participated for the first time alongside IHC’s board of directors, the company announced today, where the chatbot broke down the firm’s performance metrics and provided recommendations to boost revenue and profitability.

↪↩ Closing Circuit

⛽ Pumping Gas: The Shell oil company is in talks to sell its chain of gas stations in Malaysia to Saudi Aramco in a deal that could be worth as much as $1 billion, Reuters reports.

🌀 Wind Power: Norway’s Scatec and a group led by Egypt’s Orascom Construction signed agreements to build two wind power plants in Egypt with a combined $9 billion in investment.

📈 Saudi IPO: Rasan, a Saudi fintech firm, said it will sell a 30% stake in an IPO on the Tadawul Stock Exchange, which will open for bookbuilding by institutional investors from May 12-16.

🇲🇦 Aerospace Factory: Swedish aerospace company Trelleborg plans to set up an $11.8 million Moroccan manufacturing unit in the Midparc development near Casablanca.

🔒 Noname Firm: Akamai Technologies said it will buy Israeli cybersecurity startup Noname for $450 million, less than half the company’s value during its last funding round in 2021.

☁️ Cloud Guard: Wiz, an Israeli cloud security company, raised $1 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed and Thrive Capital that values the firm at $12 billion.

🗣 Circuit Chatter

🏗️ City Building: The spiraling costs and construction problems in building Neom, Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion megaproject, are explored in a feature story by the Wall Street Journal.

🏙️ Most Millionaires: Dubai has been ranked as the Middle East’s wealthiest city with 72,500 millionaires, followed by Abu Dhabi with 22,700 millionaires, according to a report by Henley & Partners, which tracks private wealth, and global intelligence provider New World Wealth.

🏍️ Tough Ride: The challenges faced by Turkish delivery app Getir to expand internationally is the subject of a feature story in Bloomberg. 

🏀 Tip Off: Tickets for the 2024 NBA Abu Dhabi Games, which will feature two pre-season games between the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics, have gone on sale.

👠 Fashion Lab: The Saudi Fashion Commission announced the launch of “The Lab,” which will provide local designers, brands, and fashion entrepreneurs with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.

🌍 Power Circuit

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed sent congratulations to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his inauguration to a fifth term.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai and President of the Dubai International Financial Centre, met on Tuesday with Yie-Hsin Hung, President and CEO of State Street Global Advisors.

Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, inspected the Al Lyyah Water Canal project, which aims to increase the flow of water from the Arabian Gulf to Sharjah’s Khalid Lake.

Sheikh Shakhbout bin Nahyan, a UAE Minister of State, is heading the country’s delegation to the Islamic Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is taking place this week in Gambia.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the UAE, issued a decree establishing the Dubai Council, which he will chair. The body will aim to formulate and implement the emirate’s future development agenda to enhance its global competitiveness. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, will serve as First Vice Chairman and Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed as Second Vice Chairman.

➿ On the Circuit

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and CEO of Emirates, said he’s been assured by Boeing management that the planemaker will sort out the long delays on the 777X widebody, for which the Dubai airline is the biggest customer, Bloomberg reports.

Sarah Al Suhaimi, Chair of the Board of Saudi Tadawul Group, extended an invitation to attendees of the Milken Institute Global Conference to visit the kingdom and the region: “If you’re getting to know us from far away you will be mostly misguided,” she said.

Oscar Fahlgren, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Brazil at Mubadala Capital, spoke about the sovereign wealth fund’s conviction in the future of biofuels on a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference, days after he disclosed a planned $13.5 billion biofuel project in Brazil.  

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, spoke colorfully on an earnings call on Monday after which shares in the spy-tech company dipped as the company cut its growth forecast. 

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said he hoped to forge stronger economic links with Dubai, speaking at the Dubai Fintech Summit about his city’s role as an Asian financial hub.

Dipak Sakaria, Energy Transition Advisor at the UAE Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure, said Emirates Nuclear Energy Co. is eyeing more reactors to power 4 GW more capacity at its Barakah nuclear power plant, speaking on a panel at NYUAD hosted by AmCham Abu Dhabi on Monday evening, The Circuit reports. 

Aernout Boot, Senior Advisor at The Carlyle Group based in Abu Dhabi, speaking alongside Sakaria, said Carlyle would not join private equity peers in divesting from hydrocarbons amid the energy transition as the U.S. firm sees a long-term role for oil and gas in the global economy. 

Vincent Coste, Chief Commercial Officer of Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Air, told Arabian Business that the kingdom’s new carrier plans to begin operations quickly and “disrupt the airline industry.”

🎶 Culture Circuit

📽️ Movie Deal: Saudi Arabia is cutting the cost of cinema licenses and encouraging theater owners to reduce ticket prices in an effort to boost the kingdom’s growing $1 billion movie industry.

👻 Arabian Nightmares: An English-language anthology of short horror stories from the region co-created by Lebanese writer Daniel Habib has passed its $10,000 Kickstarter goal, confirming demand for the relatively neglected genre in Arab literature, The National reports.

🎸 Come Around: Punk rock veterans Green Day and The Offspring will perform for 30,000 people at Expo City Dubai in January next year, with tickets going on sale from 10 a.m. on Thursday.

📷 Photo of The Day

🗓️ Circuit Calendar

May 7-9, Abu Dhabi, UAE: AIM Congress. The Annual Investment Meeting will convene inter-governmental leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and policymakers on the theme “Adapting to a Shifting Investment Landscape: Harnessing New Potential for Global Economic Development.” Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center.

May 13-15, Abu Dhabi, UAE: Abu Dhabi Global Healthcare Week. A conference focusing on investments, and innovation to solve the most important global health challenges. Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center and Abu Dhabi City.

May 14-15, Abu Dhabi, UAE: J.P. Morgan Asset Management: Life Sciences Innovation Summit. A gathering aimed at drawing startups and investors from the life sciences sector to Abu Dhabi. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. 

May. 14-16, Doha, Qatar: Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg. A news-driven event dedicated to global business and investment. This year’s theme is “A World Remade: Navigating the Year of Uncertainty.” Request your invitation here. Fairmont & Raffles, Doha.

May 29-31, Marrakech, Morocco: GITEX Africa. The second edition of the biggest tech and startup gathering in Africa. Place Bab Jdid. 

June 5, Hong Kong: Bloomberg Wealth Event. A gathering to bring actionable intelligence to portfolio managers and other dealmakers and analysts from asset managers and owners, family offices and hedge funds. Conrad Hong Kong. 

June 23-26, National Harbor, Maryland: SelectUSA Investment Summit. The highest profile event in the U.S. to facilitate business investment by connecting thousands of investors, companies, economic development organizations and industry experts to make deals. Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.

ADQ combines pharmaceutical businesses to launch Arcera

ADQ has launched a new healthcare holding company named Arcera that consolidates the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund’s pharmaceutical interests in Switzerland, Turkey and Egypt, making it one of the MENA region’s largest life sciences businesses.

The new company, based in Abu Dhabi, intends to double its revenue over the next five years through international acquisitions and partnerships, ADQ said in a statement on Monday. 

Arcera’s portfolio will consist of 2,000 branded medicines, addressing illnesses in the areas of neurology, gastroenterology, cardiovascular, pain relief, rheumatology and infection. The holding company owns ADQ’s stakes in Switzerland’s Acino International, Turkey’s Birgi Mefar Group and Egypt’s Amoun Pharmaceutical Co.

Abu Dhabi has taken a forward-leaning stance on healthcare investments coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic and today aims to become a regional hub for life sciences — one of the hottest areas of investment that covers everything from genomics and pharmaceuticals to clinical trials and personalized medicine. ADQ, chaired by UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, is spearheading a number of those efforts under its mandate to be the lead investor driving the UAE’s economic transformation from petro-state to a knowledge-based economy.

The formation of Arcera follows a familiar playbook: In January 2022 ADQ merged its healthcare subsidiaries with Alpha Dhabi’s Pure Health Medical Supplies to create PureHealth, the country’s largest healthcare provider. ADQ is planning to list the new entity, Bloomberg reports, as it did with Purehealth last December. The firm’s $1 billion listing surged 84% on its debut. 

Nuvo, a maker of remote fetal monitors, prepares for Wall Street debut

Across the U.S., doctors and healthcare companies are trying to address the spread of “maternity care deserts,” large swaths of the country suffering from a shortage of obstetricians and nursing staff.

Two years ago, health technology giant Philips teamed up with a small Israeli startup called Nuvo Group to judge whether its remote fetal monitoring platform could help. The pilot program conducted with women in rural parts of Colorado whose pregnancies were termed high-risk ultimately persuaded Philips to strike a distribution agreement with Nuvo.

The ability of Nuvo’s device to provide accurate information, assisted by artificial intelligence, is also propelling the company to its debut in the next two months on the Nasdaq stock market. Going public in a SPAC merger – the Wall Street maneuver that enables companies to sell shares through a shell entity already registered on an exchange – Nuvo hopes to raise at least $30 million, CEO Rice Powell told The Circuit.

Investors “want to see if the Philips relationship is really working,” said Powell, 68, former chairman and CEO of Fresenius Medical Care, one of the world’s largest makers of kidney dialysis machines. “It’s incumbent on us to work with physicians and get [the device] in front of them.”

Nuvo is in the final stages of merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) created by Los Angeles Media Ventures, an investment company co-founded by entrepreneur Jeffrey Soros whose uncle is billionaire George Soros. Earlier efforts to mount an initial public offering were dropped two years ago because of global economic conditions that dried up the IPO market, Powell said.

Care for high-risk pregnancies in the U.S. costs an estimated $58 billion a year, according to the medical journal JAMA. The country is short at least 9,000 obstetricians – rising to a forecast 22,000 by 2050.

Nuvo’s INVU monitoring device is the only product that has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for both self-administered remote tracking of maternal and fetal heart rates as well as for remote non-stress tests. The exam assesses the well-being of a fetus by measuring whether its movements in the womb affect its heart rate.

Patients strap the INVU sensors on their abdomen with a band that generates data and transfers it to a mobile phone app. The digitized results are then sent for analysis to the patient’s doctor.

Many patients with high-risk pregnancies are seen at the hospital or clinic multiple times a week for monitoring by a Doppler ultrasound device, which provides the clearest view of the fetus’s condition. Medical authorities have discouraged use of home Doppler devices because the procedure generates a slight level of heat that may be harmful to fetal tissue if used too frequently. INVU’s development of a passive technology for monitoring uterine activity enabled it to get a green light from the FDA.

“Where this is really groundbreaking is moving it from the hospital or clinic where they’re doing the non-stress tests and the mom is there in person, to moving it remotely,” said Kelly Londy, Nuvo’s former CEO who now serves on the company’s strategic advisory board. The challenge is “proving… the same degree of accuracy.”

Londy, a former executive at Philips, cultivated the relationship with the Netherlands-based healthcare company while she led Nuvo for nearly three years until Powell replaced her last month. Plans call for selling the INVU system first in the U.S., Europe and Israel. Pursuing markets in Asia, the Gulf and Africa would come later, Powell said.

Nuvo’s competitors include Sense4Baby, Pregnabit and Heramed.

More than 60% of pregnancies in the U.S. are termed high-risk because of factors that include diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and drug use. Pregnant patients under 17 and over 35 are also often classified as high-risk.

Getting the $19 billion Dutch company on board was key to clinching the deal with Soros and LAMF, “which ascribed value to the Philips [agreement] with respect to it serving as validation of Nuvo’s technology,” according to the 374-page prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Soros’s firm, Los Angeles Media Ventures, which produces films, plays and entertainment programming – including the 2022 Hulu TV docuseries “Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers” – also invests in technology.

Use of telemedicine has been growing for years, from monitoring blood pressure and respiratory function to meeting with a psychiatrist. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, there was a 63-fold increase in the use of Medicare visits through telehealth from 2019 to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nuvo device was found to be especially useful late last year at Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv when safety concerns over rocket fire from Gaza prompted a precautionary reduction in available beds during the war with Hamas. Doctors sent many expectant patients home for monitoring through INVU.

“Instead of just telling women to go home without following up with them, the ability to sustain the standard of care at home was amazing,” said Dr. Avi Tsur, an obstetrician and director of the Women’s Health Innovation Center at Sheba. “What we wanted to do, even before the war, was to allow them on the one hand, to receive treatment. But on the other hand, to continue their careers and continue their family life.”

While the FDA approvals for the heart monitoring and non-stress test applications paved the way for Nuvo’s partnerships with Philips and LAMF, the device can collect massive amounts of data and tailor it to doctors’ needs. This is what makes the technology most attractive to investors, Rice said. Among the conditions that can be assessed with the equipment if regulatory approval is obtained are hypertension, diabetes and maternal mood disorder, with the prospect of reducing the chances of preterm birth and unnecessary C-sections.

Tsur said the potential for getting better medical insight from the data through AI-based predictive analytics is an important reason Sheba chose to use the INVU technology.

“We see it as part of our vision for the future of health,” he said.

High quality of care and tech makes Abu Dhabi attractive for health start-ups: Isaac Applbaum

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi’s massive investments in healthcare and technology make it a prime market for “patient-centric” healthcare startups looking to reach new markets, according to venture capital investor Isaac Applbaum.

The cofounder and general partner of MizMaa Ventures, an early-stage deep tech fund with headquarters in Tel Aviv and offices in San Francisco and Hong Kong, said he is looking at what portfolio companies can “leverage the high quality of care and the high quality of technology, so I’m going to look at things that are patient-centric” to introduce to Abu Dhabi. 

“I’ve been investing in the region for a very long time. If I may just say, with the Abraham Accords, things have just opened up in an extraordinary way,” he said. 

Applbaum, speaking at the Forbes Middle East Healthcare Summit in Abu Dhabi, said in the current risk environment founders must get products to market as fast as possible.

“Particularly in the digital health space, and the device space, and in healthcare, understanding how you get your product to market as quickly as possible, how you solve problems that aren’t 100 years away, but are actually solvable problems now,” he said.

“It’s really important: you need to be capital efficient… how you’re going to make your money back becomes way more important than it ever was, because it’s much more difficult.”