Arcera Life Sciences (“Arcera”), a global life sciences company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (“Fosun Pharma”), an innovation-driven global pharmaceutical and healthcare group, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a long-term strategic collaboration focused on licensing, technology development, neuroscience innovation and value creation in the global life sciences sector.
The agreement was executed by Sunil Bhilotra, Chief Investment Officer of Arcera, and Xingli Wang, Co-President of Fosun Pharma, CEO of Innovative Medicines Division in Shanghai, China. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Qunbin Wang, Co-Chairman of Fosun International; Yuqing Chen, Chairman of Fosun Pharma; Isabel Afonso, Chief Executive Officer of Arcera; and Rafael Ferrer, SVP Corporate Development of Arcera.
Aligned with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the People’s Republic of China and the UAE and Abu Dhabi’s Healthcare Life Sciences Vision 2030 objectives, this MoU creates pathways for innovation and market access in both countries. The collaboration combines Fosun Pharma’s world-class R&D and manufacturing capabilities with Arcera’s international market access and commercial infrastructure, positioning Abu Dhabi as a premier bridge between Chinese biotech innovation and global markets while accelerating patient access to breakthrough therapies across the Middle East and beyond.
As part of the agreement, Fosun Pharma and Arcera will explore collaboration across three key areas:
- Regional and global licensing of assets: The collaboration will initially focus on identifying potential licensing opportunities for Fosun Pharma assets in oncology, neuroscience, rare diseases and cardiometabolic disease, including compounds currently in advanced clinical development or commercial stages in China.
- Frontier technology incubation: Exploration of joint ventures or new entities to localize cutting-edge biotechnology and foster sovereign R&D capabilities in the UAE across small molecules, biologics, radiopharmaceuticals, small interfering RNA therapies, and cell and gene therapies.
- Strategic collaboration in neuroscience: The neuroscience collaboration will focus particularly on neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease programs, addressing a critical global health challenge where both innovative therapeutics and regional access remain significant unmet needs.
Isabel Afonso, CEO of Arcera commented: “Today marks another step forward in our journey to build a truly global life sciences ecosystem anchored in the UAE. By combining Fosun Pharma’s proven drug development capabilities with Arcera’s international commercial and manufacturing capabilities, we are creating a model for how China-UAE collaboration can accelerate both biotechnology innovation and patient access to breakthrough therapies. This is our first strategic partnership that will position Abu Dhabi as the bridge between Asian innovation and global markets.”
Xingli Wang, Co-President of Fosun Pharma, CEO of Innovative Medicines Division, said: “We are excited to establish this strategic partnership with Arcera, which marks a pivotal milestone for Fosun Pharma in deepening international collaboration and expanding into global markets. Arcera is a formidable industry player, and we are confident that our systematic capabilities built over more than 30 years in global R&D and manufacturing, will instill greater confidence in our collaboration. We look forward to working closely with Arcera, leveraging our respective strengths to accelerate the delivery of innovative therapies in the Middle East and across the globe, so that our innovative achievements can benefit more patients worldwide.”
gulfnewsbusiness.com 
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