Healthcare

Arabian Ethicals, a Ghobash Group enterprise, underscored the critical role of pharmaceutical distribution in strengthening healthcare access across the Middle East during its participation in the International Conference on Pharmacy and Medicine (ICPM), held from January 20 to 22 in Sharjah.

The conference brought together regulators, pharmaceutical manufacturers, healthcare providers and industry stakeholders to address key priorities shaping healthcare delivery in the region. Representing Arabian Ethicals, Ebru Yavuz, General Manager, took part in high-level discussions focused on healthcare access, pharmaceutical innovation and regulatory frameworks.

In her presentation titled “Powering Healthcare Access: The Middle East Distribution Imperative,” Yavuz highlighted distribution as a central pillar of the healthcare ecosystem. Drawing on the UAE market context, she outlined how pharmaceutical distributors function as the operational and regulatory link between global manufacturers, health authorities and healthcare providers, supporting compliance, market authorization and patient access.

“Distribution is foundational to healthcare access,” Yavuz said. “In the UAE, it is the mechanism that ensures medicines are properly authorized, managed in line with regulatory standards, and consistently available, while safeguarding quality and patient safety.”

Yavuz emphasized that without an authorized distributor, pharmaceutical products cannot be legally imported, stored or sold in the UAE. She outlined the distributor’s responsibilities in meeting federal and local regulatory requirements, including product registration, dossier compliance and ongoing pharmacovigilance to ensure public safety.

A key focus of the discussion was supply chain integrity and adherence to Good Distribution Practice (GDP). Yavuz highlighted the importance of validated cold-chain infrastructure, temperature monitoring, serialization and traceability, particularly for temperature-sensitive therapies such as biologics, vaccines and insulin, especially in the region’s challenging climate conditions.

She also addressed the distributor’s role in supporting market access and continuity of supply across the UAE through tender participation, demand planning, forecasting and inventory management. These functions, she noted, are essential to ensuring uninterrupted availability of essential and chronic medications across hospitals, pharmacies and other healthcare providers.

Yavuz’s contribution formed part of broader ICPM discussions examining how healthcare systems can balance innovation with regulatory rigor and operational resilience, reinforcing the importance of pharmaceutical distribution as a foundational enabler of patient access.

Headquartered in Dubai, Arabian Ethicals works closely with international pharmaceutical partners to connect global innovation with local healthcare providers, ensuring compliant and reliable access to medicines across all seven emirates.

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