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.
Nuwa Capital navigates evolving Mideast investment landscape
Khaled Talhouni, Managing Partner of Nuwa Capital, says the recent proliferation of tech IPOs in the Gulf demonstrates that a “window is opening” for investors on stock exchanges in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and some of their neighbors.
Talhouni, 39, has a broad view of developments in regional finance, having opened offices in both Dubai and Riyadh for the venture capital firm, which manages $100 million in assets.
After attending college at Duke University in the U.S., Talhouni returned to the UAE for a job at Dubai International Capital, where he worked on the region’s first seed capital fund. He directed investments and strategy at twofour54 in Abu Dhabi and went on to become a Managing Partner at Wamda Capital. He started Nuwa in 2020.
Nuwa’s backers include Saudi Arabia’s Al Faisaliah Group, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co., Jada Fund of Funds and the Dubai Future District Fund. Among its 30 portfolio companies are Calo, a Bahrain-based meal planning start-up; Zest Equity, an online platform for managing venture capital investments; and Raqamyah, a Saudi crowdfunding platform.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are the major trends you see these days among investors in Middle East businesses?
I think with what’s going on in Saudi Arabia with a lot of very successful IPOs having happened in the past 24 months – particularly but not necessarily in tech, but across the board – we are seeing huge interest in participating in late-stage tech or late-stage, pre-IPO types of deals. That is because investors are seeing how there is a quick return on the back of that.
Also in the UAE, there is the Talabat deal coming up soon as well. So IPOs seem to be the hottest topic in town. I would say that is kind of moving in a big way.
One thing you see a lot more are direct deals, a lot more, so you do see people much more interested in going direct, as opposed to funds. You do see an interest in profitability. I would say that’s kind of increasingly of interest.
As we head into 2025, do you see further new companies being founded, or do you see more acquisitions than founding opportunities?
I think a couple of things are going to happen. First, I think funding is going to pick up because a lot of people are coming into some new dry powders. Some new funds are closing so things are moving. Then those who are sitting on the side have some deployment pressure that they need to deploy.
Secondly, I think a lot of early-stage companies, as funding has dried up relative to what it was in 2020-2021, [are going to be acquired]. We are going to see a lot of mid-tier companies and startups start consolidating into larger ones. So there is a lot of consolidation. More “aqua” (acquisition) hires. So bigger tech companies buying up talent or buying companies, or aqua hiring, or merging with companies that are smaller than them, that basically augment their offering, or add to their existing offering.
In terms of founding companies, that trend is secular. So that trend is continuing no matter what. So you see more and more every year, more companies being founded, regardless of what’s going on in the capital market.
Do we foresee a market correction where only the best companies will survive and move on to series A and beyond?
That’s the natural state of affairs. It should be like that. The unusual period was those couple of years in 2020, 2021, 2022, when everything was getting funded all the time. That’s unusual, but I think the natural [way that things] occur is actually, the majority of companies don’t survive going from Series A to Series B.
We are seeing movement within the IPO space while, at the same time, smaller businesses are struggling. What’s going on in the market?
There is a slowdown, a little bit of a consumer slowdown, particularly in Saudi a little bit. That’s definitely kind of happening in some small way. I think there’s also some liquidity constraints. So that’s definitely happening overall. I think it is very sector-specific.
However, consumer spend overall is being stretched. Which is why, on the other hand, companies, in BNPL (Buy-now-pay-later) and consumer credit seem to be doing so well. So they are really growing very, very aggressively. It is a little bit of a tale of specificities depending on which segment you’re in, you’re having a very different reality.
How has the wave of IPOs and exits shaped the current venture capital environment within the region? What do you think is going to happen in the next coming years?
So on the IPO front, it is extremely positive. I don’t know if you remember this, this whole route was not open. You know, as early as three, four years ago, there were no tech IPOs in the region, and there are very few IPOs overall. Right? Like, it was not a very vibrant capital market generally. So I think the fact that this window is opening, and there is demand, and there’s regulatory reform, and there’s opening up, especially on the Tadawul exchange in Saudi but even on the DFM in Dubai and ADX in Abu Dhabi, I think is extremely positive.
So that’s kind of spurring all kinds of more activity in the space to create validation that you can exit your startup through an IPO, which is typically, if you look at in other developed markets, it’s not the main way companies exit, but it’s not the majority of how startups exit, but it’s where the largest exit has happened. That had not really been open to our region before. And now this opening up really kind of creates some ability, some exit paths for startups at the larger base.
How does Nuwa Capital see the whole startup ecosystem moving forward? What role do you play in this within the region?
We see that the sovereign system is maturing. We do still think that there is still a huge room for more and more companies, for more and more companies to get funded, and more capital to throw on the startup ecosystem. I think there are probably too many individual VCs. So I think it’s a bit fragmented, and I can see that the market is also consolidating and or kind of getting a bit more concentrated, with the larger firms and the more established firms getting disproportionate amounts of the capital in the long run.
As for us, we are very keen on continuing on our mission, which is to kind of really invest in early-stage companies, impact the very best founders, and grow our business on the back of that. We have some companies that are beginning to mature within our portfolio. So we are hoping to position for exit in the coming two to three years. But then we also have a very young portfolio as well, so we will see how that kind of evolves over the coming years.
