The information was announced during a virtual meeting between Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan and the Japanese firm on August 19. The event was attended by Dr. Koichi Yamada - Corporate Vice President and Head of Anti-Infectives Business Unit Div. at Fujifilm, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam, and representatives from relevant units of the Health Ministry (MOH).
At the meeting, Chairwoman and CEO of AIC Group Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan said that AIC Group is ready to buy all Avigan available tablets from Fujifilm’s stock to contribute to providing free-of-charge treatment for current COVID-19 patients in Vietnam.
Accordingly, AIC Group will negotiate for the immediate purchase of one million Avigan tablets this month and finance the entire cost of bringing them to Vietnam for the free-of-charge use to support the treatment of patients.
Also, AIC Group and Fujifilm Toyama Chemical will agree on a plan to continue bringing more of the medication to Vietnam in the shortest possible time.
Fujifilm representatives confirmed that they will work to soon ship the first batch of one million Avigan tablets to Vietnam. In addition, the firm will consider the transfer of Avigan drug production technology to the Southeast Asian country in the near future at the request of AIC Group and the MOH.
The purchase of one million Avigan tablets at this time is very encouraging, especially as the number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam is at a high level and shows no signs of slowing down.
Before the Thursday meeting, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan utilised all its relationships in the Japanese government to access this valuable source of medicine.
The MOH had also constantly supported and coordinated to help AIC Group receive the approval of Fujifilm's leaders for the immediate transfer of all available Avigan tablets to Vietnam, although the company said that it still has many important orders in wait.
