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We recently hosted a healthcare event at our Dubai offices titled “AI & Genomics in the UAE Healthcare Landscape – Opportunities, Supervision & Outcomes”. The event brought together a diverse panel of experts from across the healthcare ecosystem, including policymakers, clinicians, technology leaders, investors and advisors, for a dynamic discussion on how artificial intelligence (AI) and genomics are reshaping the region’s healthcare future.

Our discussions built on the themes of our earlier article, Genomics and the future of healthcare in the Middle East, by focusing on the practical, ethical and commercial questions that AI-driven genomics raises.

As a follow-up to this insightful panel, we invited our experts to share a few thoughts and highlights, based on the discussions exchanged during the event but also with an eye to the future outlook of AI & genomics in the UAE.

From policy to practice: the UAE’s positioning

A recurring theme is the UAE’s ability to rapidly translate national vision into tangible outcomes. As one panellist, Dr. Narges Sheikhansari, observed:

Both the Emirati Genome Programme and AI partnerships through platforms such as M42 are examples of how the UAE is not merely keeping pace but beginning to set the pace in healthcare innovation.

 

Opportunities in the next 12–24 months

Panelists agreed that immediate opportunities lie in applying AI to diagnostics, screening and early detection. As PwC’s Health Consulting Partner, Ahmed Faiyaz mentions:

Genomic screening for markers associated with cancer, metabolic, and cardiac conditions remains a key near-term priority. Genetic counsellor Maria Axinte underscores the crucial role of genetic counselling within national initiatives:

Building collaboration and infrastructure

Effective collaboration between public and private stakeholders is seen as essential to scaling innovation. Suggestions include co-funded pilot programmes, integration of genomic services into insurance coverage and shared data infrastructure. Cross-collaboration between GCC and additional Middle Eastern countries allowing for data sets to be shared and analysed together could contribute to a significant advancement.

Ahmed Faiyaz highlighted Abu Dhabi’s HELM initiative as a positive example, noting the importance of aligning collaboration with broader economic benefits such as job creation and investment attraction.

Ethics, culture and data

Beyond opportunities, our experts unanimously stress the ethical and cultural sensitivities of deploying AI in genomics. Maria Axinte in particular notes:

Dr. Narges echoes the importance of careful positioning:

Investment priorities

While diagnostics remains a clear opportunity, panellists highlight the foundational role of data ecosystems.

Maria Axinte adds that rare disease diagnostics and reproductive genomics represent untapped areas where AI-driven tools could have transformative impact in the UAE context.

Cross-industry collaboration

Another element that all practitioners and stakeholders should duly consider is the importance of cross-collaboration as Ahmed Faiyaz correctly stresses: 

Clyde & Co’s perspective

As legal advisors, Clyde & Co recognises that this rapid innovation brings both opportunities and complexities. Regulatory frameworks governing genetic data, IP rights in AI-driven outputs and cross-border data transfers remain evolving areas of law.

Our team advises clients at the intersection of law, healthcare and technology, supporting on matters including:

• Regulatory compliance and licensing under UAE and GCC healthcare laws
• Data privacy, cybersecurity and genetic data governance
• Structuring joint ventures and investment in biotech ventures
• Supporting M&A activity and market entry in health tech

Looking ahead

The discussions between experts underscore that the UAE is uniquely positioned to lead in AI-driven genomics, thanks to its ambitious national strategy, agile regulatory environment and diverse population base. The key challenge, and opportunity, will be ensuring that innovation is matched with robust governance, ethical safeguards and sustainable collaboration between public and private actors.

At Clyde & Co, we are proud to facilitate conversations at this frontier and to support clients navigating the legal and commercial dimensions of healthcare innovation in the region and working with key stakeholders to develop frameworks that balance business objectives with patient and consumer interests.

For more information, or to discuss how Clyde & Co can support your healthcare and life sciences initiatives, please contact Dr. Roshanak Bassiri Gharb, Julia Ofer or Sinan Amso.

Thank you to our external contributors:

Dr Narges Sheikansari

Ahmed Faiyaz

Maria Axinte

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The share of electronic trading in the nearly $30tn Treasury market has fallen to its lowest level in eight years, as exotic Wall Street bets on US debt push investors to make more trades manually.

Almost half of all trading in Treasuries this year has been done by one-to-one messaging or over the telephone in transactions too large and complex to be conducted without human involvement — the biggest share since 2017, according to industry research group Crisil Coalition Greenwich.

The comeback of so-called voice trading — which had been falling as a share of overall Treasury trading for decades — reflects the growing importance of what are known as package trades, often conducted by hedge funds.

“The volume growth [in voice trading] is coming in large part from these large package trades that are executed manually,” said Kevin McPartland, Coalition Greenwich’s head of market structure and technology research.

Academics and analysts say hedge funds are among the primary users of package trades, which include strategies such as the basis trade and interest rate swaps that demand direct contact between the two sides of a transaction.

“The increased volume of package trades is very likely ascribable to hedge funds that are arbitraging the cash-futures basis and now sizeable swap spreads,” said Darrell Duffie, a professor at Stanford University who is an expert in Treasury market structure.

“As to why this has generated relatively more voice trades than electronic trades . . . I would guess this is [because] the three legs of basis trades are executed separately,” he said.

Coalition’s data shows that for this year to the end of October, 54 per cent of the notional value of Treasury trading was placed electronically, down from a peak of 67 per cent in the full year of 2019.

Instead, a growing share of Treasury trading has involved complex, multi-step wagers such as the highly leveraged hedge fund strategies that many analysts say exacerbated the turmoil that hit the Treasury market after US President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff blitz in April.

Manual trading had been in decline for decades, as advances in technology enable more and more transactions to be done by machines interacting with other machines.

But the growth of electronic trading is happening at a slower pace than the growth of the overall market. Voice trading, meanwhile, has started to grow more quickly.

It is commonly used in the basis trade, for example, in which hedge funds exploit differences in price between a cash Treasury bond and its equivalent futures contract. While such differences tend to be small, hedge funds borrow heavily in short-term lending markets to fund their bets, turning small differences into large profits.

The complexity and the pricing of these transactions mean that they are typically done over the phone or through messaging chats.

Since 2020, Coalition Greenwich has calculated the breakdown of trading by measuring the volume at big electronic trading venues such as Tradeweb and Bloomberg, as well as trading conducted directly between banks and clients against the total value of Treasuries traded.

The use of electronic trading on Wall Street has been gaining ground for decades, initially with the buying and selling of equities. This shift has given rise to so-called non-bank liquidity providers such as Citadel Securities and Jane Street. These firms have captured market share at the expense of large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, which had traditionally dominated Wall Street market making.

“We’re seeing growing demand for new ways to access electronic liquidity, with trade sizes increasing,” said Michael de Pass, global head of rates trading at Citadel Securities.

“That being said, our clients continue to want to execute larger trades with us via voice and that requires a strong human element of trust and comfort. This is a dynamic that we believe will continue to exist in the market.”

Fixed income markets, including the giant Treasury market, have been slower to embrace electronic trading because of their more opaque pricing systems and complex structures. While a company will typically have just one traded stock, for example, it may have multiple tradeable bonds of various maturities.

Nevertheless, the parameters of what can be done electronically have expanded. Two decades ago, a rough rule of thumb was that Treasury trades of more than $50mn needed to be done over the phone. This has since swelled to about $250mn.

Platforms such as Tradeweb say the trend towards electronification is still well under way in the Treasury market.

Bhas Nalabothula, head of US institutional rates at Tradeweb, said the volume of Treasury trading conducted on the platform had grown fivefold since 2017, while turnover on the total Treasury market had doubled over the same period.

“The trend towards more electronic trading in Treasures is unmistakable — it is a one-way train and there is no going back,” he said.