The UAE was one of the first countries to participate in clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines, which contributed to accelerating the pace of vaccine development and distribution to the world as part of the continuous efforts to combat the pandemic. The emirate participated in phase III clinical trials of Sinopharm and the supplementary study of the immune response to Sinopharm for children aged 3 to 17, in addition to phase III for clinical trials of the Russian human adenovirus-based Covid-19 vaccine, among others.
With regards to research, Abu Dhabi doubled its research capabilities during 2021 to develop scientific and clinical research, the number of which exceeded the research projects that were conducted during the five years preceding 2021. In this context, DoH launched the “Research Registry for COVID-19”, which is a unified platform to support R&D efforts in the fight against COVID-19, facilitating scientific discoveries to tackle the virus. To date, the registry has received 376 scientific papers, 325 of which were approved and 46 were published. Moreover, 67 facilities licensed for healthcare research were established across the emirate.