Sandoz Ushers in New Era of Accessible Healthcare for patients in Vietnam
Xem Tiếng Việt 
World-leader in biosimilar and generic pharmaceuticals secures Vietnam business license
Sandoz, the global leader in generic and biosimilar medicines, has announced today as the first day that they will operate as an independent company in Vietnam, completing the local spin-off from Novartis. On October 4, 2023, Sandoz successfully spun off from Novartis and Sandoz Vietnam will soon join its counterparts around the world as a standalone business.
This is a key milestone for the now independent Sandoz in the fast developing southeast Asian nation of Vietnam, a milestone which the company marked with the signing of a significant new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with one of the nation’s most prominent cancer hospitals.
“Over five million patients in Vietnam receive our treatments annually at present, and millions of cancer patients in Vietnam are covered by Sandoz treatments in the nation’s public hospital system,” said Sandoz Vietnam General Manager Mr. Charaf Eddine Kadri. “Sandoz treatments are available in every province nationwide and are the considerable choice for hospitals nationally for oncological therapeutic treatments,” he added.
The newly-inked MoU with the hospital serves to build upon this strong foundation and enhance the professional capacity of medical staff at the hospital while strengthening connections and cooperation between domestic and foreign oncology organizations and experts. It will see the carrying out of medical training and educational activities which will benefit patients and the community at large in Vietnam.
Sandoz Vietnam employs around 140 associates in three locations across Vietnam, and currently markets 82 SKUs nationwide, including five Biosimilar’s SKUs that are fully certified by not just relevant authorities here in Vietnam, but are also marketed in 100 countries worldwide including highly regulated markets in Europe and US.
“As a company, we are about pioneering access for patients around the world, and this mission extends to Vietnam, where our focus is allowing easy access to affordable, international standard medicines and treatments to patients here,” said Kadri.
Generics and biosimilars, which are successors to an existing medicine where either exclusivity has been lost or its patent has expired, account for an estimated 80% of medicines used worldwide by volume, at about 25% of the total cost.
The company sees itself playing a central role in Vietnam’s healthcare economy, where affordability and accessibility of high quality generic and biosimilar products would allow health care authorities to optimize the increasing burden of healthcare expenditure and better manage access for patients in remote and rural areas.
