Cinfa opens UAE scientific office, plans first localisation hub outside Spain

Cinfa, a Spanish pharmaceutical company, has opened a scientific office in the UAE, according to a report published on 16 October 2026 by the trade website healthcaremea.com. The report said the UAE is set to become Cinfa’s first localisation hub outside Spain.

The report did not give the date of the opening, the office’s location within the UAE, the size of the team, the amount invested or the names of the local partners involved.

A phased plan

According to the report, Cinfa plans to build the hub in phases with local partners. The first phase covers scientific and regulatory capabilities, with a focus on regulatory affairs, quality assurance and pharmacovigilance, and closer work with government authorities, healthcare institutions and other national stakeholders. The second phase would add secondary packaging and batch release. Later phases could include technology transfer and selected local manufacturing, depending on local partnerships and operational needs. No dates were given for any phase.

The report said Cinfa has until now developed products mainly for European markets before launching them in the region. It now plans to take UAE requirements into account earlier in development and regulatory planning, with the stated aims of earlier patient access and better planning of registrations and market entry. Franc Vives Ribera, chief international officer at Cinfa Group, commented on the launch; the report paraphrased his remarks rather than quoting him directly. The initiative was linked in the report to UAE Vision 2031 and its emphasis on economic diversification and a stronger domestic industry.

Regional footprint and regulatory context

Cinfa entered the Middle East through the UAE in 2013 and has since expanded into Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iraq, according to the report. It markets more than 100 product references across the region, the report said, without naming specific products.

The move comes as the UAE’s medicines regulator, the Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE), presses for more local capacity and supply resilience. In February 2026 the EDE activated a mechanism requiring pharmaceutical companies to appoint more than one authorised agent for every product they market in the UAE, under Federal Decree-Law No. (38) of 2024, Gulf News reported. In May 2026 the EDE signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi-based Arcera Life Sciences covering local manufacturing, talent development and the country’s strategic stockpile of medical products, according to a statement published on the Acino website.

Our reading

• The Healthcare Daily’s reading: a scientific office set up for regulatory, quality and pharmacovigilance work is a modest first step. The commitments that would most affect UAE supply, namely secondary packaging, batch release and manufacturing, are conditional on partners and have no published timetable.
• If Cinfa does build UAE requirements into its dossiers earlier, the gap between its European and UAE launches could narrow. Distributors and hospital pharmacy buyers can test this by tracking registration dates for new Cinfa products over the next year.
• The EDE’s multiple-agent rule means a manufacturer can no longer place each product with a single authorised agent. A local regulatory team gives Cinfa more direct control over registrations and agent relationships, although the company has not publicly linked its decision to that rule.