At a meeting between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and AstraZeneca, CEO Pascal Soriot reaffirmed AstraZeneca’s long-term commitment to Vietnam

Plans for this partnership were announced at a meeting in Hanoi on May 31 between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, and AstraZeneca Vietnam chairman and general director Nitin Kapoor – along with leaders of the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The prime minister attributed Vietnam’s achievements in pandemic control to the contributions of many countries and organisations, including AstraZeneca.

He would like to elevate the Vietnamese government’s existing relations with AstraZeneca towards a strategic partnership in the manufacturing of vaccines and medicines, healthcare workforce capacity development, and supporting Vietnam to implement its decarbonisation targets that were committed at COP26.

Soriot, who is visiting Vietnam at the invitation of PM Chinh, said that “AstraZeneca is honoured to be a long-term, trusted partner of Vietnam in bringing quality healthcare to local communities. The meeting reinforces our commitment to protecting vulnerable populations in the country, both through the timely supply of our high-quality vaccine and long-acting antibody, as well as by reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases with our innovative medicines. We look forward to taking our comprehensive partnership with the Vietnamese government to new heights.”

The planned collaborations will build on recent commitments made by AstraZeneca to advance pharmaceutical technology transfer and local contract manufacturing in Vietnam, which raised total investment between 2020 and 2030 to $310 million.

Kapoor shared, “The discussion provides a clear roadmap for us to further deepen our collaboration with the Vietnamese government, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our 500-plus team here remains as committed as ever to accompany Vietnam to develop the pharmaceutical industry, as well as strengthen the health system’s sustainability and resilience so that it can best serve patients and withstand future challenges.”

Following the meeting, AstraZeneca will collaborate with the relevant ministries and departments to develop and expand on their comprehensive healthcare partnership.

Since the beginning of 2021, more than 72 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to Vietnam via the direct supply agreement and bilateral donations from other countries. The vaccine, which was the first to be approved and supplied, has helped to both protect lives and accelerate Vietnam’s path towards full normalcy.

Over the past three decades, AstraZeneca has run several impactful programmes in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and healthcare partners to promote disease awareness, prevention, and early detection.

Amongst them are the Healthy Lung Programme to improve the quality of outpatient management of asthma, COPD, and lung cancer, the Young Health Programme to prevent and reduce NCD risk behaviours amongst young people, and the CaReMe programme to transform the cardiovascular-renal-metabolic care ecosystem.

AstraZeneca is also cooperating with the World Economic Forum, the London School of Economics, the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, and the Ministry of Health in the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience to holistically reinforce the Vietnamese health system so that it can guard against future risks.

AstraZeneca Vietnam has received the Minister of Health’s Certificate of Merit twice for excellent contributions to advancing cancer treatment (2019) and to Vietnam’s pandemic response (2020), amongst various other industry awards.