Exclusive Mental health as important as salary in the Gulf Companies offering robust mental health support programmes will secure the best talent in the Gulf, according to the founder of a workplace wellbeing platform. Asim Amin, founder and CEO of Plumm, said that while businesses in the region have started to realise the importance of their employees’ mental wellbeing, there is “still a long way […] June 29, 2022
Health Saudi Arabia to invest $3.4bn in vaccine, biomedical drugs sector Saudi Arabia’s industry and Mineral Resources minister said on Friday the country would invest $3.4 billion in the vaccine and biomedical drugs sector, according to state news agency SPA. The Minister Bandar Alkhorayef, who heads the newly-established vaccines and biopharmaceutical industry committee, said the move is part of the kingdom’s push towards achieving pharmaceutical security […] June 25, 2022
Tourism Airlines upbeat on recovery but labour shortages may hurt growth Global airlines battered by COVID-19 seem confident of narrowing their losses but still face challenges such as labour shortages at airports which could restrict post-crisis growth, industry executives at a summit in Doha said. Recent flight delays and cancellations have been widely blamed on a lack of staff as an increasing number of people desert […] June 21, 2022
UAE pledges mask clampdown as Saudi lifts all Covid restrictions Masks are no longer required indoors in Saudi Arabia, but the UAE has warned it will be 'strictly monitoring' its rules on face coverings June 13, 2022
Health ADQ injects new life into healthcare portfolio ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, today announced it has agreed to acquire one of Turkey’s leading producers of sterile injectable products as part of plans to build an integrated healthcare and life sciences platform in the UAE. The company said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Birgi Mefar Group (BMG), a […] June 13, 2022
Tourism UK should have done better on Covid-19: IATA director general A top airline industry official on Tuesday said the UK should have responded “a hell of a lot better” to Covid-19 and argued aviation should have been more forceful in challenging government-mandated border closures during the pandemic. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), also defended airlines’ handling of a rebound […] June 8, 2022
From Austria to the UAE: Monkeypox cases around the world Over 20 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease, with more than 300 confirmed or suspected infections mostly in Europe. The outbreaks are raising alarm because monkeypox, which spreads through close contact and was first found in monkeys, mostly occurs in west and central Africa, and only very occasionally […] June 2, 2022
Business of Sport Formula One appoints Shaila-Ann Rao as new interim head Shaila-Ann Rao, who was previously a special advisor to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, took over as interim head of Formula One at the governing FIA on Wednesday in place of departed Peter Bayer. The Paris-based FIA, which voted in Emirati Mohammed Ben Sulayem as president last December to succeed departing Frenchman Jean Todt, thanked […] June 2, 2022
Nearly a fifth of UK monkeypox cases linked to travel Nearly a fifth of monkeypox cases reported in the United Kingdom are linked to travel, Britain’s UK Health Security Agency(UKHSA) said on Wednesday. Recent foreign travel to a number of different countries in Europe within 21 days of symptom onset has been reported by 34 confirmed cases, or 18 percent of the 190 cases of […] June 1, 2022
UAE to open first robotic biobank in 2023 Al Jalila Foundation, a member of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, will establish the UAE’s first robotic biobank, in partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). The collaboration will advance medical research in the areas of genetic disorders, cancer and […] May 28, 2022
Exclusive People & Lifestyle Age is just a number – and that number is $33trn As companies join the global race to prolong life, the Gulf is positioned to lead the way in preventative medicine “Live long and prosper” may be a quote from science fiction, made famous by a Star Trek movie in 1979, but its sentiment is driving real growth in today’s global scientific economy. The global longevity […] May 28, 2022
Turkey to receive $500m from World Bank for COVID-19 vaccines The World Bank said on Thursday that its board had approved $500 million in additional financing to support Turkey in its efforts to fight against COVID-19. The funds, which will have a maturity of 10.5 years with a five-year grace period, will be used to ensure access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in Turkey, […] May 27, 2022
Health Taiwan, now trying to ‘live with Covid’, has 80,000 cases a day Taiwan was billed as a coronavirus success story when its economy boomed in the pandemic, but the island is now battling a record wave of infections as it eases restrictions to start “living with the virus”. For the whole of 2021, Taiwan reported under 15,000 locally transmitted cases. It is now registering around 80,000 cases […] May 24, 2022
Health Egypt’s net foreign assets retreat further into the red Egypt’s net foreign assets (NFAs) dropped by 169.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($9.17 billion) in March, the sharpest decline since the coronavirus crisis broke out in February 2020, central bank data showed on Sunday. NFAs fell to a negative 221.3 billion pounds at the end of March from a negative 51.69 billion pounds a month earlier. […] May 15, 2022
Tourism Saudi reveals post-Covid entry policy in tourism push Government white paper proposes simplifying health-related entry protocols for travellers to the kingdom Saudi Arabia is working to introduce a shared framework by which countries can share information on local and global health crises to prevent disruption in air travel to and from the kingdom. The proposed policy, called Harmonising Air Travel and set out […] May 11, 2022
Tech Make it happen: How to digitally transform your business Here is the first of our monthly guides to harnessing global trends with a razor-sharp regional focus May 10, 2022
Pharma giant Teva trims revenue estimates on currency volatility Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which continues to forge legal settlements in US opioid cases, reported as expected first-quarter profit and trimmed 2022 revenue estimates due to currency fluctuations. The world’s largest generic drugmaker said on Tuesday it earned 55 cents per diluted share excluding one-time items in the January-March period, down from 63 cents a […] May 3, 2022
Health Betting big on drug discovery, UK’s OMass Therapeutics raises $100m Betting on a fresh formula for the arduous, expensive and failure-prone field of drug discovery, UK-based OMass Therapeutics on Thursday said it has raised $100million in series B funding. Including the latest injection – led by a pack of prominent new investors including the Google Ventures and Sanofi Ventures as well as existing investors such […] May 2, 2022
Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate to have UAE trial China’s Suzhou Abogen Biosciences Co said its coronavirus vaccine candidate using the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and targeting the Omicron variant has obtained clinical trial approval in the United Arab Emirates. With Friday’s announcement, Abogen joins Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in trialing candidates modified specifically against Omicron, a highly transmissible variant with increased resistance to antibodies […] April 30, 2022
Actual COVID death toll near 15 million The official death toll from the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic is about 5.4 million. But according to a new World Health Organization report, the actual number is around three times higher than that. The U.N. body said on Thursday there were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with COVID-19 by the end of […] April 29, 2022
NMC administrators sue EY in UK for alleged negligence The administrators of NMC Health have filed a lawsuit against EY in the United Kingdom for alleged negligence on the audit work it did for the troubled hospital operator between 2012 to 2018, a spokesperson said. NMC, which used to be listed in London, ran into trouble in 2020 and went into administration after it […] April 29, 2022
Tourism China’s airlines post heavy losses on coronavirus curbs China’s three biggest airlines have reported heavy first-quarter losses as prolonged coronavirus curbs weighed on travel demand and a weakening Chinese currency and rising fuel prices inflated costs, trends which persist in the current quarter. Analysts expect another year in the red for Chinese airlines as Beijing sticks with its zero-coronavirus policy to stop the […] April 29, 2022
