Pharma seeks tech transfer incentives

A variety of multinationals plan to carry out new tech transfer initiatives for drugs and vaccines in Vietnam with an aim to increase local access.

Pharma seeks tech transfer incentives, Source: freepik.com

Atul Tandon, general director of AstraZeneca Vietnam, said its $90 million investment for 2022 to 2030 for production setup and supply operations in Vietnam underscores its long-term commitment to transferring cutting-edge technology and producing innovative medicines locally.

“AstraZeneca’s technology transfer to Vietnam to locally produce nine stock-keeping units of our four leading brands, accounting for nearly half of our current year’s pharmaceuticals supply in Vietnam, is a comprehensive initiative that goes beyond advanced manufacturing capabilities,” he said.

In response to the Vietnamese government strategy on development of the local industry, AstraZeneca is aligning its projects with national health priorities to improve local manufacturing capacity.

“However, technology transfer in pharma is fraught with numerous risks and challenges,” Tandon added. “From ensuring the seamless integration of advanced technologies to maintaining stringent quality standards, every step requires meticulous planning and execution.”

At Viatris, its local manufacturing of drugs using the tech transfer process is aligned with the government’s directives on developing the pharma industry and balancing local, regional, and global supply at scale.

In 2018, it signed a contract with an EU-GMP manufacturer for production of originator items in Vietnam. Four years later, it broadened collaboration with the manufacturer to license production of other non-communicable disease products. Now, it is prioritising portfolio expansion to address a broader range of unmet healthcare needs across Vietnam.

“We are dedicated to crafting a comprehensive business strategy that expands our commercial footprint in Vietnam and deepens our commitment to the local healthcare community. To achieve this goal, we will focus on sustainable access at scale,” said Radhika Bhalla, head of Vietnam and Asia Alliance Markets for Viatris.

This activity still faces many obstacles regarding procedures and funding, of which legal reforms are needed to create a more attractive investment environment for the industry, Bhalla added.

“In some countries, policymakers focus on these initiatives to foster self-sufficiency and empower countries to address their healthcare needs through a mix of global, regional, and local production,” Bhalla said. “Vietnam can strike a similar balance while also acknowledging investment by providing favourable tax policies, streamlining the licensing process for drugs undergoing technology transfer and implementing policies to enable their market viability.”

Stellapharm is also trying to push ahead. Established in 2000, the company first entered the EU market under tech transfer projects with German partners.

Nguyen Ngoc Lieu, deputy general director of Stellapharm, said, “We want to invest but cannot do so widely, as we need clear and specific policies. We still encounter many problems: for instance, there are some products which were transferred from factories abroad, but when entering Vietnam, they faced problems related to the regulations on equipment incompatibility. We find it very difficult to implement the investment.”

Moreover, the tech transfer process in Vietnam takes 5-8 years, and it takes two years for registration. This is not feasible for European groups, Lieu added.

At a policy dialogue workshop on the issue held in late December in Hanoi, experts agreed that the challenges underscore the critical need for collaboration with the government, agencies, and various stakeholders to solve.

The bottlenecks have resulted in the timid number of drugs and vaccines under technology transfer in Vietnam over past years. According to the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health, as of 2023, only nine patented pharmaceuticals had tech transferred to Vietnam from multinationals. Vietnam’s pharma manufacturing tech has only reached level 3 on the 4-level scale of the World Health Organization.

Nguyen Khanh Phuong, director of the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, added that technology transfer contributes to achieving the pharma industry’s goals by 2030. These include increasing domestically produced drugs to 80 per cent in quantity and 70 per cent in market value; carrying out tech transfer for at least 100 original brand-name pharmaceuticals; and increasing Vietnam’s pharma manufacturing tech to level 4.

“International experience shows that the success of this depends heavily on government support. The key is that the government needs to improve regulations to ensure the interests of the parties involved – specifically the mechanism on protecting intellectual property rights, creating stronger conditions for parties in terms of registration of documents and related legal procedures,” Phuong said.

“The support related to manpower for parties involved during implementation is also an issue of concern to many businesses. The others include procurement and bidding policies, tax incentives, and training of qualified people to receive technology transfer,” Phuong added.

New legal upgrades can aid pharma tech transfer Vietnam’s pharmaceutical industry has made notable achievements in recent times. The total value of the market has increased from $3.4 billion in 2015 to $7.46 billion in 2022, with an annual growth rate of about 12-15 per cent.

The ups and downs of pharma-led tech transfer With high connectivity and spillover, the pharmaceutical industry can contribute to Vietnam’s becoming a high-income country and one of the top industrialised countries in Asia by 2045.