Peter Fang Head of APAC Shire
Shire, formerly known as Baxalta, is a global leader in treating rare diseases like haemophilia and other bleeding disorders. Viet Nam News speaks with Peter Fang, head of Shire Asia Pacific, who is taking part in APEC 2017’s SOM 3 in HCM City.
Healthcare issues are being highlighted at APEC 2017 with several meetings and conferences discussing urgent problems. As an active partner of APEC for many years, what is your company’s view on the issues? Does your company have any initiatives at APEC 2017?
I think we are an active partner in APEC, and we really welcome this platform as a great initiative to bring together all the key stakeholders, Government officials and private enterprises to talk about how we can improve healthcare across the Asia Pacific. It also has a very good focus on chronic diseases, especially those that are debilitating and life threatening such as rare diseases.
They impact over 100 million people across the Asia Pacific, or 45 million people in South East Asia alone. Our hope is that universal healthcare applies to people with rare diseases because we believe that universal healthcare cannot be achieved without adequate access to drugs by people with rare diseases.
We here at APEC are very excited to support initiatives like the rare diseases working group, so that rare diseases can be a part of universal healthcare.
I think Viet Nam is one of the most dynamic markets that we are in. And like we said before we are really impressed with the ambition, drive and progress Viet Nam has made in healthcare.
What do you think Viet Nam and other members of APEC, especially the developing economies, should do to reduce barriers in treating chronic and rare diseases?
Maybe we step back and look at the challenges of people with rare diseases. There are 7,000 rare diseases and currently only 5 per cent of those have some form of treatment or drug therapies. The first thing we must do is to make sure there is access to those therapies and the availability of these drugs to people with rare diseases.
So what APEC can do and is doing is finding means to enhance access to therapies for people of all types, especially those with rare diseases. Two is diagnosis. Less than 5 per cent of people with rare diseases are typically diagnosed and one of the things APEC can do is help set a standard of care for diagnosis, for newborn screening, and other ways to find patients. I think APEC can play a very big role in setting standards for screening, for diagnosis so the 5 per cent diagnosis can be increased.
I think Viet Nam is already showing great progress in terms of providing universal health coverage for all citizens. Recently with the new pharmacy law, Viet Nam has put in new things for clinical trials so that there is potential for a waiver, which allows innovation to come in sooner. Number two is the introduction of patient assistance programmes so that people in Viet Nam can have access to affordable treatment. The third is helping prioritise orphan drugs, drugs that are applied to a very small population.
I think already the pharmacy law is improving access for people with rare diseases, but more is needed. We have already worked on two memorandums of understanding to improve the standards of care for haemophilia treatment. And I think what important for Viet Nam is to take on more public-private partnerships and MOUs where the private sector can support improvement in infrastructure needed to treat people with rare diseases.
In Viet Nam, your company has tied up with the National Institute for Haematology and Blood Transfusion and the Blood Transfusion Hospital. Can you tell us about these partnerships and do you have expansion plans?
This is part of the plan to support public-private partner-ships between the Vietnamese Government, clinical community and private sector. This is a project that we have been working on for five years now. And it’s really been elevating standards for people with haemophilia. There are about 6,000 people living in Viet Nam with this bleeding disorder. So through this partnership we have supported many things to raise the standard of care. We have trained 120 doctors across Viet Nam in haemophilia and set up 12 haemophilia treatment centres across Viet Nam. We are working very closely to try to expand this beyond just the centres in the north and the south.
What are your company’s long-term goals in APEC, Viet Nam in particular?
So just in the APEC region this is an important growth opportunity for us and the reason is we estimate that over 100 million people are impacted by rare diseases, and as I said before less than 5 per cent are diagnosed or have form of treatment and 1 out of every 3 babies born with a rare disease will die before the age of five. And, unfortunately, this is the mortality rate of a baby born 100 years ago. So we think that from a company perspective this is really important for us to make a big impact on this 100 million, on these kids especially. And so we have invested a lot in the Asia Pacific to make a difference. —VNS