Indian biotech firm Ayu Life Sciences to build $9mn Dubai facility for artificial skin
Ayu Life Sciences, an India-based medical devices and cell therapy company, announced plans to establish a new AED33 million ($9 million) advanced manufacturing facility at Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza).
The new facility is billed as the first of its kind in the region. The 13,500 square metre facility will focus on the production of next-generation wound care solutions and surgical treatments, designed to meet the growing global demand for high-quality, sustainable healthcare products.
India's Ayu expands globally
Dr. Rajan Datt, Managing Director of Ayu Life Sciences, said the company is excited to announce the new facility in Jafza, marking a major milestone for it.
'We look forward to breaking ground on this new facility and extending the reach of our flagship products like Velgraft, Velvert, and VelNez to more patients in the Middle East and around the globe,' he said.
Abdulla Al Hashmi, Chief Operating Officer Parks & Zones, DP World GCC, said Jafza's manufacturing infrastructure and strategic connectivity make it the ideal launchpad for innovators like Ayu Life Sciences.
'This facility reinforces Dubai's growing role as a global hub for the healthcare and advanced medical manufacturing sectors,' he said.
The launch comes amid a surge in demand for artificial skin, with the market projected to grow from $3.1 billion in 2024 to $5.3 billion by 2032.
The facility will be developed in two phases, with Phase 1 set to go live by late-2025, and full completion by 2027.
It will produce Ayu Life Sciences' flagship products, including Velgraft, an artificial skin substitute designed for scar-free healing and tissue regeneration, Velvert, a natural antimicrobial wound care dressing formulated to accelerate healing and prevent infections, and VelNez, a nasal and ear dressing that enhances patient comfort and post-surgical recovery.
These solutions are backed by a portfolio of 22 global patents and developed using eco-friendly materials and natural components to minimise environmental impact.
The company currently exports from its Delhi facility to over 20 markets across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East.
In addition to advanced wound care, Ayu Life Sciences is progressing in the field of regenerative medicine.
Clinical trials are underway for a novel therapy using cells similar to those in the pancreas to regulate blood sugar for patients with Type 1 diabetes, and for Velnerve, a solution for peripheral nerve injuries.
With Jafza already home to over 800 manufacturing companies from 75 countries, Ayu Life Sciences joins a thriving ecosystem of global innovators.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Etihad
2 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Delta warns new tariffs could force it to stop buying foreign-made aeroplanes, impacting millions of customers
5 June 2025 21:29 WASHINGTON (REUTERS)Delta Air Lines warned that new tariffs on imported aeroplanes and parts could force the airline to stop buying foreign-made planes, impacting millions of customers. The Atlanta-based carrier told the US Commerce Department in comments seen by Reuters Thursday that in 2023 and 2024 it took delivery of 47 Airbus aircraft produced in Canada, Germany and France. If the carrier had not been able to take delivery of those planes because of tariffs, it would have forced flight cancellations impacting 10 million customers. Delta said a "similar impact could be expected going forward" if the Trump administration imposes new tariffs.
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Life's like that: Why I shout from the rooftop on social media
Once upon a time, the word psychiatry was seldom in currency and mental health was shackled to lunatic asylums and treated by a mad man's doctor who more often than not prescribed lashes instead of placebos. In movies, therapeutic counselling sessions were not an option; instead, electroconvulsive therapy, commonly known as shock treatment, was shown to evoke maximum pathos. While mental health in the modern world refers to taking care of our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, back in the day, we grew up watching how such patients and their families were alienated to the point of being ostracised. Sreeni was one such person we avoided in our neighbourhood. As we went to the market or school, we avoided taking a shortcut through his property or having a tête-à-tête with his academically brilliant daughter. We heaved a sigh of relief when Sreeni was found lying on the verandah bound with fetters of iron during an episode. He was proud of his daughter and talked about her achievements when he was 'normal'. We never bothered to see the other side of the family's predicament, such as the plight of his daughter growing up seeing her hapless father tethered to a pillar most of the time. She masked her agony with a smile and academic scores. Fast-forward to the era of the Internet and social media, mental health is no more a taboo and yet it takes centre-stage in discussions, especially after the Covid pandemic and subsequent phenomenon like work from home. People don't cover up their psychological issues and the therapeutic sessions they attend. To seek help is no longer a taboo. In our Dubai heydays, wild family parties on weekends were the only window to throw out one's frustrations and agonies. Friends, parents and children alike waited for such occasions to vent emotions and then hug and make up. And then before the hangover wore thin, those tales would spread like a wildfire. I'm not sure if it's the pandemic that broke the shackles on our mindset. The newfound freedom to talk about one's own mental health in public, especially on social media, has not only emboldened us but also fostered a community that's ready to lend help. Though I was an early bird on every social media platform as soon as it was available, I wasn't a regular on any of them and was even sceptical of those who posted all the happenings in their lives. I would just post my columns or other articles, and wouldn't even revisit to check on the number of likes. I never bothered to hashtag my posts for visibility either. This isn't the first time I have dealt with mental health in this column. It's almost a threadbare topic, so why again, readers might wonder. I have never been a private person. My life has been an open book that all and sundry could read, trample on, and tear pages from. Some even add a foreword or a postscript. Probably alarmed by my frequent portraiture on Facebook, good old friend Suresh Menon commented: 'Is it the old mid-life crisis?' Which made me sit and wonder: 'What am I doing here?' Call it by any other name, even an existential crisis, but I believe I am doing it right. I am not shouting from the rooftop to seek attention or a million likes. I am on social media to express myself; to chronicle my emotions, my frustrations, my likes and dislikes, and my successes and failures. Once sceptical about such platforms, I now use social media to empty myself. FB is not my political manifesto; LinkedIn is not my professional portfolio; Instagram is not my family album. They are my diary entries. They have empowered me to manifest my thoughts. To cry is no more an option but an elixir in life, and when I don't have a Juliet balcony outside my four walls, such platforms lend me a theatre to perform. Call me a hero, or a villain or a comedian, let me act out the last scene of my biopic on this world stage. I know the audience is made up of my family and friends, colleagues present and past, critics and commenders, flames old and new, and role models fallen and evergreen. I remain unbothered. For me at the moment, life is a soliloquy I am destined to act out. I will ever be grateful to those backstage lending me valuable support. I understand social media means different things to different people. To my friend Malaika, it's her alternate universe where she is on a mission to discover what life is all about, and hopes: Somewhere in the future, or sooner I would get to know, What this was all about, Or maybe in some alternate universe Where neither logic nor conscience Determines how or how much I will love you The way love must be. And somewhere down the road, when life after me would turn normal for my loved ones, my posts would stay there as a signboard that would read: 'Once upon a time, here lived a chaotic soul.'
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Fighter pilot takes next giant step for India's space plans
Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla blasts off into space next week as the first Indian to join the International Space Station (ISS), bearing with him New Delhi's dreams of its own manned space flight. An airforce fighter pilot, 39-year-old Shukla is joining a four-crew mission launching from the United States with private company Axiom Space, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. He will become the first Indian to join the ISS, and only the second ever in orbit -- an achievement that the world's most populous nation hopes will be a stepping stone for its own human flight. "I truly believe that even though, as an individual, I am travelling to space, this is the journey of 1.4 billion people," Shukla was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper this year. Shukla said he hopes to "ignite the curiosity of an entire generation in my country", and "drive the innovation that will make many such projects possible for us in the future". The airforce group captain -- equivalent to an army colonel or navy captain -- will pilot the commercial mission slated to launch June 10 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a joint team between NASA and ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation. 'New era' India's Department of Space calls it a "defining chapter" in its ambitions, naming Shukla as "among the top contenders" for its maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, "sky craft" in Hindi, scheduled for launch in 2027. "His journey is more than just a flight -- it's a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration," the Department of Space said ahead of the launch. New Delhi has paid more than $60 million for the mission, according to Indian media reports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to send a man to the Moon by 2040. India's ISRO said in May that it planned to launch an uncrewed orbital mission later this year, before its first human spaceflight in early 2027. Shukla's voyage comes four decades after Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma joined a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. "What sets Shukla's mission apart is its strategic importance," the department added. "Unlike the symbolic undertones of India's first human spaceflight, this time the focus is on operational readiness and global integration." Shukla also trained in Russia, in 2020 along with three other astronaut hopefuls, at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center -- before further training at ISRO's centre in the southern city of Bengaluru. He has said the journey aboard the Axiom Mission 4 -- and then the expected 14 days on the ISS -- will provide "invaluable" lessons to bring back home. - Space yoga - Shukla will be led by mission commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, and joined by European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. The son of a government ministry official, from Lucknow in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Shukla is a veteran fighter pilot experienced in flying Russian Sukhoi and MiG jets. He has promised to perform yoga poses in the ISS. If he is unable to fly on Tuesday, fellow airforce pilot Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, 48, is expected to take his place. India has flexed its ambitions in the last decade with its space programme growing considerably in size and momentum, matching the achievements of established powers at a much cheaper price tag. In August 2023, it became just the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the Moon after Russia, the United States and China. Waiting at home will be Shukla's family, including his wife and son. "I've been having goosebumps by just thinking that soon my brother will be in space," his older sister Suchi, a school teacher, told the Times of India newspaper.
