The UAE’s single-agent pharma model has been dismantled. The newly established Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE) is now requiring pharma companies to appoint more than one authorized agent per medical product marketed in the UAE, state news agency Wam reports. The system effectively ends the long-standing single-distributor structure in the pharma industry.

What’s changed? Global manufacturers typically appointed one local agent per product, responsible for import, storage, and distribution — opening up supply lines to fragility. If that sole agent faced operational delays, pricing disputes, or inventory bottlenecks, supply could tighten nationwide.

But now, one product will have multiple pipelines. Companies can designate more than one authorized agent, enabling parallel warehousing and distribution routes across emirates, removing the structural chokepoint from the old model.

Why it matters

The EDE says the shift is designed to cut disruption risk, improve inventory responsiveness, and curb quantity-control practices, while “establishing a flexible legislative environment that supports the sustainability of the [pharma] market and the protection of public health,” Chairman Saeed bin Mubarak Al Hajeri said. The broader aim is to strengthen pharma security and ensure continuous product availability nationwide.

Background

This reform fits into the UAE’s broader consolidation of pharma oversight under the EDE. At the start of this year, key regulatory and licensing powers were transferred from the Health and Prevention Ministry over to the EDE, granting the federal body authority over pricing, product registration, manufacturing oversight, warehousing, and import-export services — around 44 in total — following a 2024 federal decree that expanded its mandate.

Tags: