The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed an appendix to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand the scope of the Hand in Hand initiative, official sources have said.
The MoU was signed with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and Axios, a global healthcare consulting firm, said the official sources.
The initiative aims to provide affordable medicines to uninsured and low-income expat patients or those whose insurance does not cover the cost of treatment of several diseases.
The ailments are pulmonary arterial hypertension, multiple myeloma, active ulcerative colitis, and psoriatic arthritis.
The MoU was first signed in December 2018, and about 712 eligible patients are said to have benefited from it.
In April 2019, an extension of the program was signed to provide new medication to patients with the aforementioned conditions.
The initiative covers drug support plans based on the assessment of non-Emirati patients who are uninsured or those whose medical insurance doesn’t cover the cost of the treatment.
It also includes sharing the cost with patients or the supporting body according to their ability to bear the costs of the treatment.
