The recognition, announced at the Vietnamese government’s meeting to review the country’s vaccine diplomacy on November 30, adds to AstraZeneca Vietnam’s long list of prestigious awards and demonstrates its vaccine journey to support the country’s success in pandemic control.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Nitin Kapoor, chairman and general director of AstraZeneca Vietnam

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first to be approved, delivered, and used in Vietnam. In total, over 72 million doses of the vaccine were supplied to the country through both the advanced purchase agreement and bilateral government donations.

By independent estimates, in the first year of roll-out up to December 2021, the vaccine helped save over 232,000 lives in Vietnam, preventing hospitalisations and deaths amidst the peak of the pandemic.

In addition to this recognition, Nitin Kapoor, chairman and general director of AstraZeneca Vietnam and Asia Area Frontier Markets, was awarded a friendship medal from State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Kapoor’s proactive and decisive leadership on the company’s vaccine journey helped make Vietnam one of the first countries in Asia to access COVID-19 vaccines.

Kapoor said, “We are honoured to partner with the Vietnamese government and society in the fight against the pandemic. The recognition that we received is immensely meaningful to our 500 local employees, our partner Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), and many other global and regional colleagues who worked around the clock to deliver vaccines at no profit ahead of schedule to protect Vietnamese people, while maintaining our supply of innovative medicines for other patients who were silently struggling with dangerous chronic diseases.”

The recognitions have been added to AstraZeneca Vietnam’s long list of awards, including certificates of merit from the minister of health for excellent contributions to the fight against cancer and COVID-19, a friendship medal from the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union for outstanding impact on youth, multiple awards from the British and European chambers of commerce, and being recognised among Vietnam’s Top 100 Best Places To Work by Anphabe and market research firm Intage for four consecutive years.

The journey of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnam began in November 2020 when AstraZeneca and VNVC signed an advanced purchase agreement to bring 30 million doses to Vietnam, with the support of the Ministry of Health (MoH). Despite a global shortage of supply, AstraZeneca made significant effort to prioritise deliveries to Vietnam and fulfilled the contract ahead of schedule in December 2021.

During the pandemic when non-communicable disease care was disrupted, AstraZeneca Vietnam donated 150,000 boxes of medicine to the MoH to support treatment for patients. AstraZeneca’s other initiatives to strengthen the health system include the donation of 400,000 medical masks and personal protective equipment to enhance protection for frontline health workers, and the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, London School of Economics, and the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, to comprehensively reinforce the health system and prepare for future challenges.

Since the pandemic began, AstraZeneca and its global partners have released over three billion vaccine doses to more than 180 countries. Approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low and lower middle-income countries. AstraZeneca has demonstrated commitment to delivering long-lasting immunity to millions more people globally against infectious diseases beyond COVID-19 by establishing a new business unit – Vaccines and Immune Therapies – in late 2021.

Over the past three decades in Vietnam, AstraZeneca has run several impactful programmes in collaboration with the MoH and healthcare partners to promote disease awareness, prevention and early detection. Among them are the Healthy Lung Programme to improve the quality of outpatient management of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer; the Young Health Programme to prevent and reduce non-communicable disease risk behaviours among young people; and the CaReMe programme to transform the cardiovascular-renal-metabolic care ecosystem.

AstraZeneca has also reached two landmark agreements in Vietnam: investment of $90 million to develop local manufacturing capabilities, and the delivery of an additional million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, reaffirming its long-term investment commitments and continuous efforts to support the development of the local healthcare sector.