Chairman of the SCIC Board of Directors explores promising possibilities with Edelman Global Advisory (EGA) and Vinapharm

On the morning of October 17, 2023, at SCIC headquarters, Chairman of the Board Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh and SCIC officials received and worked with Mr. Joseph Damond - Global Chair, Health, Edelman Global Advisory (EGA) and business leaders from Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation, JSC (Vinapharm).

This was an occasion to implement the contents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Vinapharm (a company with 65% of shares owned by SCIC), EGA and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) in the United States in September 2023 witnessed by Vietnam Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh.

At the meeting, Mr. Joseph Damond updated the Chairman of the Board of SCIC on the cooperation situation between EGA and Vinapharm, and provided some inputs on the Vietnamese pharmaceutical market as well as trends and prospects of the biopharmaceutical industry of Vietnam, particularly in Southeast Asia and all of Asia as a whole. The EGA representative also conveyed his delight regarding the close cooperation between EGA and Vinapharm over the past year, giving positive outcomes such as: Developing a draft White Paper called "Globalizing Vietnam's biopharma sector, transforming vision into reality", successfully connecting Vietnamese authorities and businesses with global partners at the 2023 BIO International Convention held in Boston, USA, signing ceremony of the MoU between EGA, BIO and Vinapharm in September 2023 in the United States.

Chairman of the Board Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh congratulated Mr. Damond on the encouraging results achieved by the cooperation between Vinapharm and EGA, agreeing with Mr. Damond's comments on growth prospects as well as the competitive nature of the market for the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry in general and the biopharmaceutical field in particular. Chairman Nguyen Chi Thanh also discussed with EGA and Vinapharm about some potential solutions to better exploit investment cooperation opportunities between the parties in the pharmaceutical field such as supporting EGA to connect with a number of businesses. Since most of Vietnam's major pharmaceutical industry are part of SCIC's portfolio (Domesco, Traphaco, Hau Giang Pharmaceutical...), the relevant parties acknowledged they can all better learn about each other's cooperation needs and consider contributing capital to build a pharmaceutical industrial park, pharmaceutical factory, activate technology transfer for manufacturing advanced pharmaceutical products, etc. in accordance with current regulations.

In addition, the Chairman of the Board of SCIC revealed that SCIC is always ready to coordinate and support the Ministry of Health and leading enterprises of the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry in the process of organizing forums and discussions to bring in the world's leading experts in the fields of health and pharmaceuticals, creating opportunities to connect Vietnamese domestic pharmaceutical businesses with investors, consulting organizations, and pharmaceutical businesses around the world.

Finally, SCIC, Vinapharm and EGA parties agreed and committed to maintaining connection and close coordination in cooperative activities between the parties for the goal of contributing to the development of Vietnam's pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry, in accordance with the law, and consistent with the capacities and mutual interests of the parties.