HYPERTENSION CASES RISING RAPIDLY IN UAE

New research indicates that 27% of the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) population suffers from hypertension. The country has seen a dramatic rise in cases of high blood pressure, owing to the popularity of fatty food coupled with increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

The UAE's hypertension drug market is growing rapidly. Regulators recently approved Novartis' Diovan (valsartan), in line with a similar decision in the UAE's Gulf Co-operation Council neighbour Saudi Arabia. However, local doctors claim that awareness of the disease is low, especially among women, and the WHO has recently made hypertension a regional priority in the Middle East.