The authorities will provide uninsured and low-income expats with affordable medicines in the UAE.

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and Axios, a global healthcare consulting firm, recently signed an appendix to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand the scope of the “Hand in Hand” initiative which aims to provide affordable medicines to uninsured and low-income expat patients or those whose insurance is not covering the cost of treatment of the diseases of pulmonary arterial hypertension, multiple myeloma, active ulcerative colitis, and psoriatic arthritis.

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The MoU was first signed in December 2018, and about 712 eligible patients benefited from it and in April 2019, an extension of the programme was signed to provide new medication to patients.

The pact was signed by Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the Health Regulation Sector, MoHAP, Jimmy Faris, Managing Director, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and Anas Al-Safarini, Senior Director, MENA, Axios International.