Viatris a New Global Healthcare Company with a Strong Footprint

Tamer El-Sallab, Head of Gulf and Levant at Viatris, explains what the company is all about, highlighting the challenges and opportunities currently shaping the sector

Can you tell us more about Viatris and its presence and footprint in the UAE?

First, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the UAE leadership and people for all the exemplary achievements, prosperity, and continuous development throughout the past 50 years, and wish the United Arab Emirates all the best in its role of shaping the future of the next generations in the country and across the region.

Viatris is a new global healthcare company that was formed in November 2020 through the combination of Mylan and Upjohn, a legacy division of Pfizer, with the mission to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life, regardless of geography or circumstance. Through providing access to medicines, advancing sustainable operations, developing innovative solutions and leveraging our collective expertise, we are able to connect more people to more products and services.

In the UAE, Viatris has a legacy footprint that spans more than 40 years that encompasses diversified portfolio and partnerships aimed at supporting the country’s vision to be a centre of excellence across the region. In addition, Viatris has a distribution centre in the UAE to meet the growing healthcare demand in the region.

What are the major challenges that the healthcare sector is currently facing, especially in the Gulf region?

Covid-19 is the major challenge that the healthcare sector has been facing recently across the world and in our cluster. However, as we are fighting this global pandemic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, and other NCDs, continue to be the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, representing 71 per cent of global mortality. This entails the need for better collaboration and meaningful partnerships between the public and private sectors to shape policies, enable medical education, and enhance capability building programmes that support better health to everyone.

What is Viatris doing to support better management of NCDs in UAE and the region?

Overcoming the challenge of NCDs is a collective effort of all parties across the healthcare sector, from regulators to payers, healthcare professionals, insurance companies, and patients. At Viatris, we bring innovative approaches and programs in an effort to drive positive outcomes for people living with NCDs across the Gulf and Levant cluster. Some examples are the:

‘Keep on Beating’ campaign that we launched in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Health & Prevention: a multi-element public campaign that aims to increase awareness on cardiovascular risks.

‘Health Matters with Dr Adam’ initiative launched in collaboration with Emirates Airline and the UAE Ministry of Health & Prevention: an animated series of videos designed to increase health literacy as part of inflight infotainment.

With only about half of the global population able to receive essential health services, there is much to be done to ensure sustainable access to medicines worldwide. At Viatris, we reinforce our strong foundation and commitment of providing sustainable access to high-quality medicine, regardless of geography or circumstance.