The Scoop
Abu Dhabi healthcare company M42 has begun pitching its genomic sequencing platform to governments and pharmaceutical companies around the world, and is rolling out AI chatbots tailored to patients with chronic diseases, its CEO told Semafor.
It is part of a data-led push that will see M42 launch a research center next month marketed to pharmaceutical companies, using the genetic information gathered in the UAE for drug development. The firm is also launching an AI chatbot for kidney patients in the UAE and parts of Europe this week.
“Countries, for years, were focusing on building the hospital, the next patient clinic. Now they understand that the future of health goes through the availability of data,” chief executive Dimitris Moulavasilis said.
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The firm has gathered and sequenced nearly 1 million genetic samples — including from some 100,000 non-Emiratis — under the Emirati Genome Program, a population-level effort led by the Abu Dhabi Department of Health. That data is being used to match patients to the right medication based on their genetic profile, screen newborns for treatable conditions, and reduce the incidence of hereditary diseases.
M42 would like to replicate this model and sell it to other countries. “We’re actively pitching it,” Moulavasilis said, adding that it had signed a preliminary agreement with Uzbekistan, and could build on a project in Jordan to digitalize the healthcare system there. Governments in the Global South and Southern Europe in particular have shown interest, he said.
Meanwhile, the company is also pushing into the chatbot arena with the launch of kidney.com, a platform that uses clinical data from Diaverum, a dialysis clinic network that M42 acquired at a reported value of up to $2.5 billion in 2023. Its condition-specific guidance, Moulavasilis argued, is more reliable than general AI tools like ChatGPT.
It is M42’s first such platform, and the firm plans to add more chatbots tailored to other chronic diseases. Moulavasilis said a second chronic disease condition management platform was in development, though he declined to name it.
The kidney.com site is currently meant to help patients understand their condition, manage their health between clinic visits, and engage more actively with their care. But M42’s ambition is for the platform to become an AI assistant that talks to patients, coaching them while supporting their clinicians, connecting with wearable devices, uploading test results to an electronic medical record, and creating what Moulavasilis called a “holistic service” aimed at reducing hospitalizations and the overall cost of care for health systems.
Geographic expansion is planned for Saudi Arabia, South America, and the US.
Step Back
The ambitions of the firm, established as a joint venture between Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and AI conglomerate G42 in 2023, underscore how much the UAE has maintained a business-as-usual approach during the Iran war.
After a slow month in March, Moulavasilis said patient and procedure numbers had fully recovered last month in its facilities, which include Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
Notable
- Mubadala invested in Whoop’s latest fundraising round last month, valuing the wearables company at an eye-watering $10 billion, Bloomberg reported.
- The collapse of 23andMe exposed cracks in the governance of genomic data that have yet to be addressed, a molecular biologist argued in Tech Policy Press.