Roche drops deep roots into Vietnam

“Roche is dedicated to promoting and improving the healthcare sector and patient outcomes in Vietnam which is one of the important markets of Roche,” said Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche Group on occasion of his recent visit to Vietnam.

Schwan added that Roche was ideally positioned with its combined strength of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof, making it well-equipped to help tackle some of Vietnam’s most pressing health issues through a patient-centric personalised healthcare approach. This enabled healthcare professionals to provide better, safer and more cost-effective medical care to patients in need.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Vietnam’s current national cancer incidence is at least 150,000 new cases per year, with the leading types of cancer being colorectal, stomach and lung in men and cervical, breast and colorectal in women.

Currently, most medicines were imported from western countries. But Schwan said that in the future when the market volume was bigger, the company could consider about setting production base in Asia.

 Along with making available the innovative treatments and diagnostic solutions, the company was committed to expanding access to healthcare by making treatments more affordable for the people who need them and facilitating training for healthcare professionals.

Since its launch in March, the programme to increase access to its drug which is considered expensive to treat chronic hepatitis B benefited almost 500 patients.

The programme would  be rolled put to other Roche treatments including those for cancers, said Schwan.

In Vietnam, Roche has over 300 associates for two business divisions Roche Diagnostics and Roche Pharmaceuticals.