https://www.arabianbusiness.com/ :The UAE has struck a deal that will allow US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to package their weight-loss products in the country.

The agreement was brokered in conjunction with Mubadala Bio.

Mounjaro has become one of the most well-known weight-loss projects globally, and that will be packaged domestically in the UAE, along with Foundayo, which is Eli Lilly’s oral medicine.

The deal was confirmed by Hamad Almarzooqi, Deputy Chief Executive of Mubadala Bio during the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit on Tuesday.

Almarzooqi believes the agreement with the US pharmaceutical company will only serve to further solidify the country’s standing in the global healthcare landscape.

“They will be contract-manufactured here in the UAE and distributed around the world. The agreement will support reliable access to innovative medicines while strengthening the UAE’s role in the global life-sciences supply chain,” said Almarzooqi.

More and more people across the UAE are turning to weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro to tackle the growing problem of obesity.

A report found that 32 per cent of the UAE population was on course to be obese in the next five years.

Other medical practitioners have expressed concerns that many people are using the weight-loss drug as a cosmetic treatment.

A study compiled by Eli Lilly, market analysts Whiteshield and the Ministry of Economy hopes that the obesity figure can be reduced by around 18 per cent if intervention practices are implemented rapidly.

In June, the UAE gave the green light to the weight-loss pill Wegovy.

The oral medicine was already being prescribed for weight loss in the country, via an injection pen.

The volume of people using Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro has soared exponentially over the last few years.

However, many health authorities globally have conceded that they have struggled to contain the use of unregulated off-brand injectables without a prescription for cosmetic purposes.