December 22, 2021:  The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), Merck Serono Middle East, and Manzil Healthcare Services recently inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to provide medication to patients of non-citizens with specific types of cancer and Multiple sclerosis (MS) so as to improve their quality of life.

The MoU, which is part of the 'Rawan' initiative, was signed by HE Dr. Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the Health Regulation Sector, Ramzi Murad, Regional Vice President at Merck, and Yasir Qureshi, Regional Director, Manzil Healthcare Services.
Present also at the signing ceremony, which took place at the German pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, HE Ernst Peter Fischer, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the UAE, and Prof. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, Chairman of Executive Board and Family Board of E. Merck KG.

Improving services

'The initiative is one of a series of memoranda of understanding signed by the ministry to improve the services provided to low-income patients and secure their access to high-

quality medicines, help doctors follow the best practices in the treatment plan, and enable patients to follow up and complete their treatment plan,' said Dr. Amin Hussein Al Amiri. 'The agreement aims to provide medicine to the eligible patients with colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, urothelial cancer, and multiple sclerosis (MS).
Al Amiri affirmed that the ministry seeks to increase patient support initiatives under its supervision and in cooperation and coordination with various institutions in order to enhance services provided and provide appropriate medication and treatment for various cases and diseases.
This comes as part of the Ministry's strategy to provide comprehensive and innovative healthcare services to community members in accordance with the highest international standards, he added.

Facilitating patient access to medicines

'Our primary goal is to discover and develop innovative medicines and facilitate patient access to them so as to improve their lives. The 'Rawan' initiative comes in line with our mission, as well as MoHAP's mission, which focuses primarily on promoting health care standards for everyone,' said Ramzi Murad.
'We are glad to support the efforts of the ministry of health to provide medicine to patients. We seek to meet the evolving healthcare needs and we are committed to helping patients through support and home healthcare programs, which is a shared responsibility to improve patient wellbeing,' said Yasir Qureshi.