Abu Dhabi biointelligence company CoreX is in the process of hiring the Emirates to develop so-called precision formulations, aimed at reducing disparities in drug efficacy between Middle Eastern communities in clinical trials, the Gulf region’s chief executive said.
A “sovereign biointelligence engine” considered a new category in healthcare, the company combines living human cells with a proprietary artificial intelligence system called Ouris-AI to understand how the human body responds to drugs and help prevent adverse drug reactions (ADRs).
Currently, medical and clinical guidelines are primarily shaped by data from populations in Western countries, which means that drug safety and efficacy are limited in underrepresented populations such as those in the Middle East.
Of the 292,537 participants in global clinical trials, 76 percent were white, 11 percent were Asian, and 7 percent were Black, according to an analysis conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020.
A 2025 study by the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid said genetic variations determined by ethnic background can influence how drugs are metabolized in the body. This means that drugs such as paracetamol, which people around the world use to treat headaches, may have a different effect on people in the Middle East than what is listed in the drug’s guidelines. There can be variations in how drugs are absorbed, distributed, or excreted from the body.
This suggests that medicines are tested and manufactured only on selected people, yet are used all over the world.
Research published in nature The journal found that genetic studies of Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes are dominated by participants of European descent. From 2000 to 2009, Europeans accounted for 96% of patients in these studies, but by 2016 this number had fallen to 81%, with Arabs and people of Middle Eastern descent accounting for 0.08%.
A lack of broader representation risks limiting scientific understanding and may lead to medicines being developed based on data that do not fully reflect how the disease affects other populations.
Precise prescription
CoreX is not a provider of clinical services or treatments, is not intended to be a substitute for clinical trials or regulatory authorities, and is not involved in the launch of commercial products. Instead, the company uses AI technology to make recommendations for drug development. CoreX works closely with the Abu Dhabi Institute for Healthy Living and the emirate’s Ministry of Health.
“Anyone who wants to donate blood, and many people do, will be participating in what we call a population biobank, so we basically have representation from all different demographics,” said Sarah Miller, co-founder and president of CoreX. The National.
“If we had 50 samples from one demographic, that would be enough to make very accurate assumptions about what would happen. [certain] drugs. “
The first Emirati cohort of 50 people quickly filled last week, and CoreX “will continue to do so because we don’t say no to more samples,” Miller said. “And the reality is that every time you run a new drug through the system, you’re adding another 200 samples…I’m more concerned about capacity than anything else,” she added.
It is well documented that ADRs burden health systems around the world, with studies from leading organizations such as the World Health Organization reporting that 5% to 10% of hospitalizations in high- and middle-income countries are related to ADRs. Fifteen percent to 20 percent of patients experience at least one ADR during inpatient treatment.
Arabs are “absolutely” underrepresented in clinical trials, Miller said, because of the location of major pharmaceutical companies and the demographics they recruit for clinical trials.
“Every country has its own circumstances, but a lot of our medicines and early research and development came from the United States and Europe,” she said. “It’s a geography thing. And the fact that most clinical trials are done in places where these drugs and research and development are happening and where there’s the budget to do it… They recruit trial subjects there. And there aren’t a lot of Arabs in those places.”
Meanwhile, drug-related harms are estimated to cost health systems around $42 billion annually, accounting for a significant portion of preventable harms in health care, the WHO said.
UAE influence
Analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and others estimates that in the UAE, with a population of about 10 million people, even a low single-digit ADR rate would result in tens of thousands of avoidable adverse events each year, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in direct hospital treatment.
Miller said CoreX’s technology could provide data accurate enough to eliminate the need for early-stage clinical trials, potentially cutting the drug launch phase in half.
“Right now, it takes about 10 years for a drug to go from molecule to market, with 9 out of 10 failures, and the process costs up to $1 billion to go through,” Miller said. “I would say that if you start doing what we’re doing here early, whether it works or not, 70 percent of the time, you’re already saved from the trauma of going through that whole process and finding out at a later stage that it’s not going to work.”
Miller said CoreX plans to expand the trial to other parts of the Arab world and eventually other populations, including some Gulf states within two years.
“What we will end up with in a very short period of time is not just a sample from the Emirates, but a sample from everyone… and basically representation from all different demographics,” she said.
