Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 2, 2015: Roche has announced the appointment of Abed Al Rahman Sabra as the new Country Manager for its pharmaceutical business in UAE. Moving from his current position in Lebanon, Abed will report to Ehab Yousef, Head of Middle East Sub-region 1. Effective from the 1st of February 2015, the new appointment underscores the company’s efforts to drive strategic growth in the pharmaceutical market of UAE. Roche is currently the market leader in providing innovative solutions across therapies fulfilling unmet medical needs across a range of diseases like cancer, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, anemia and transplantation.

“We are very fortunate to have a leader of his caliber to steer our business in UAE. We have already witnessed his achievement in Lebanon and as we continue to strengthen our focus on unmet medical needs and improving patient access to quality treatment, Abed’s in-depth knowledge of the industry and years of expertise will play a key role,” said Ehab Yousef.

As Roche Lebanon Country Manager, a role which he had assumed since 2011, Abed had been instrumental in driving the strategic direction, profitability and operations of the pharmaceutical business.

Commenting on his new responsibility, Abed Sabra said, “Roche primary contribution to healthcare is to invent and develop medicines and diagnostic tools that significantly improve people’s lives. Our aim in UAE is for every person who needs our medicines to be able to gain access to and benefit from them. I will be working closely with the healthcare providers and institutions to ensure that patients with unmet medical needs are benefiting from our medicines”.

Abed Sabra has been associated with Roche for more than a decade having held progressive roles of responsibility in Lebanon including Country Manager, Business Unit Director, Sales Manager, Product Manager and Product Specialist. He has been involved in the successful launch and growth of several transplant, rheumatoid arthritis and anticancer biologics. In 2002, Abed Sabra was the first to introduce the concept of breast cancer awareness campaigns in Lebanon and has been supporting this initiative ever since.

Roche UAE commenced its licensed operations in 1997 with only 10 employees, and has grown to become a head of office of Middle East subregions for 16 markets including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with almost 500 employees across the region.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and neuroscience. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostics that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. Founded in 1896, Roche has been making important contributions to global health for more than a century. Twenty-four medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organisation Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, anti-malarials and chemotherapy.

In 2013 the Roche Group employed over 85,000 people worldwide, invested 8.7 billion Swiss francs in R&D and posted sales of 46.8 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

For more information, please visit