A signing ceremony with the Medical Service Administration underlined joint efforts to raise public awareness on stroke prevention

Speaking at last week’s conference hosted by VIR on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the healthcare sector, Dr. Tran Thi Lan Huong, medical director of the Pharmaceuticals Division at Bayer Vietnam, acknowledged that PPPs have become a hot topic in Vietnam’s healthcare sector.

“Bayer has led different initiatives to form partnerships with external parties,” Huong said. “We would like to highlight the value of innovation as well as the importance of collaborations and partnerships from both public and private sectors to better control diseases and improve healthcare services in the community.”

The ongoing pandemic has triggered even much higher demands for health services and, in response, Vietnam has made efforts to urgently increase its capacity to test, trace, and treat patients while also maintaining essential health services. A wide spectrum of relevant stakeholders from both the public and private sectors must be mobilised to keep the system running, Huong explained.

In this context, PPPs have become more important than ever to build strong healthcare systems. Vietnam officially passed its first Law on Public-Private Partnership Investment in June 2020, which paved the way for more companies to venture into this space. Indeed, a number of private businesses have actively promoted the role of PPP in Vietnam to build a strong and sustainable healthcare system.

“With emphasis on a patient-centric approach, empowering patients and embedding them into decision making to lead their healthy life is priority of Bayer. We highly appreciate the partnerships with local health agencies and organisations to improve disease knowledge for patients. Besides bringing innovative treatment solutions, we also focus on making our products more accessible to patients via collaboration programmes,” Huong said.

Raising awareness

Seminars have been held in a bid to improve awareness on endometriosis

Indeed, Bayer is focusing on various partnerships to address the unmet medical needs of women in particular. The company has identified gaps to improve the physical wellbeing of women, especially those who are pregnant. With the partnership of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Associations, Bayer aims to enhance the reproductive healthcare system and benefit Vietnamese women’s health overall.

Bayer Vietnam has released Elevit, a pre-conception and pregnancy multivitamin to help mothers meet their increased nutritional needs during and after pregnancy to provide the best start in life for their babies from their first 1,000 days, ensuring a healthy pregnancy.

In addition, Bayer Vietnam also strives to increase awareness of endometriosis, a chronic disease with serious implications. It is estimated that 10 per cent of Vietnamese women have the disease.

To support Endometriosis Awareness Month in March, Bayer Vietnam, together with the Vietnam Association of Gynecology and Obstetrics and the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology, held a seminar to raise awareness and educate the public about the disease.

“Globally, Bayer puts sustainable development as a guideline under our vision ‘Health for All, Hunger for None’ for all of our activities across the supply chain, from developing products to delivering them to customers through promoting inclusive growth and responsible use of resources,” Huong explained.

To facilitate this goal, Bayer is looking for involvement from all relevant stakeholders from local authorities and agencies to other partners to make sure that people can access innovative products in a timely manner. “Meanwhile, locals should have sufficient knowledge to take advantage of provided healthcare services. Therefore, we must take different measures to raise the knowledge of diseases.”

Building diverse relationships

Support packages handed out by Bayer and the Women’s Charity Association of Ho Chi Minh City

Last year, Bayer Vietnam in collaboration with the General Office for Population and Family Planning (GOPFP) also organised a seminar promoting the message “Live Your Life, Lead Your Future” to celebrate the 15th anniversary of World Contraception Day.

This activity marked the fifth year of the partnership between Bayer Vietnam and the GOPFP in the “Family Planning Communication Programme for Public Health” initiative, with the aim of enhancing proper reproductive healthcare and family planning in Vietnam.

Bayer is expanding ties with hospitals and other institutes to improve medical quality

Furthermore, Bayer has helped build diverse partnerships to advance disease treatment in Vietnam while expanding the technological horizons of medical care. Accordingly, Bayer has acted as a bridge connecting Cho Ray Hospital Oncology Centre and Vietnam Ophthalmological Society with reputable health organisations and medical institutions in Asia-Pacific to sign a collaboration pact.

This alliance sets the ground for future collaboration on scientific exchange, education, and training, as well as mutual research for the benefit of patients. Acting as a conduit to organise seminars between the two parties, Bayer’s approach is to support these initiatives to enhance the cross-border sharing of best medical practices to improve the treatment of various diseases.

While the pandemic has changed life in many ways, it has helped to accelerate digitalisation. Now, Bayer says, it is even more important to leverage build up the digital healthcare ecosystem to drive more effective and convenient access and solutions for both patients and physicians.

Bayer will continue to nurture PPP initiatives towards sustainable development and has outlined five goals for this aim. They include empowering and supporting women’s healthcare, increasing access to healthcare for all, combating neglected tropical diseases, developing treatment for non-communicable diseases, and ensuring a sustainable product supply.