Dr. Mahender Nayak (left), senior vice president and head of Asia-Pacific Countries at Takeda, and Benjamin Ping, general manager of Takeda Vietnam, shared with VIR’s Bich Thuy how Takeda navigates Asia-Pacific’s evolving health challenges.
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are diverse, and so are their healthcare challenges. How does Takeda prioritise its efforts to improve patient outcomes across such a varied landscape?
Nayak: In Asia-Pacific, diversity is our strength, but it also means each country faces unique healthcare challenges shaped by demographics, health system maturity, and disease burden.
Our priorities are fourfold: accelerating growth as healthcare investment rises across the Asia-Pacific region; bridging access gaps to innovative medicines and vaccines where unmet needs remain high; collaborating for impact to strengthen health systems and regulatory pathways; and using digital leapfrogging as a critical pillar for the region.
With high internet and mobile penetration and tech-savvy Gen Z forming a significant part of the population, technology is transforming healthcare delivery. Digital tools, from AI-assisted diagnostics to disease management platforms, are enabling earlier detection, more personalised care, and improved patient outcomes.
Investing in digital capabilities alongside local talent is essential to improve patient outcomes and make healthcare more efficient and equitable. Ultimately, our focus is ensuring patients across every country, across established and emerging markets to benefit from scientific innovation.
Vietnam has been reflecting many of these opportunities, from rapid economic growth to strong digital adoption, and we are committed to partnering to bring innovation to patients equitably and sustainably.
How does Takeda address these healthcare gaps?
Nayak: Across Takeda, collaborations are at the heart of how Takeda advances our purpose for patients. The region’s healthcare landscape is incredibly diverse, from mature innovation hubs to fast-emerging markets like Vietnam, and that calls for partnership models that are agile and locally grounded. We anchor on localising innovation, co-creating access models and strengthen health systems so that innovation advances truly translate into patient benefit.
Looking at the broader region, Takeda’s pipeline continues to be one of the strongest in our history, with significant momentum in our core therapeutic areas. Recently, several late-stage therapies targeting narcolepsy, psoriasis, and polycythemia vera have advanced with Phase 3 read-outs while some to follow by this year, with regulatory fillings to follow. This marks a pivotal moment in Takeda’s growth trajectory.
As these innovations progress from our global research and development network into Asia-Pacific, strategic partnerships will play a critical role in enabling faster access and building local capabilities for the long term.
Ultimately, partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region are not just about market entry or distribution, they’re about building sustainable ecosystems of innovation and access, where local expertise and global science come together to impact patients’ lives.
Where does Vietnam fit into Takeda’s Asia-Pacific and global strategic vision?
Nayak: Vietnam is a key part of Takeda’s Asia-Pacific strategy and reflects the growth opportunities we see across emerging markets. Our focus is on improving patient outcomes through access to innovative medicines and vaccines, strengthening diagnosis and care pathways and strengthening local healthcare systems.
For example, we support programmes that enhance early detection, enable rare and speciality disease treatment, and collaborate with healthcare authorities and partners to ensure patients across the country can benefit from scientific innovations.
Vietnam is also a key market for our upcoming launches, with around five new products expected by 2028. Its dynamic economy, young population, and expanding healthcare infrastructure make Vietnam central to our efforts in driving innovation, partnerships, and sustainable impact across Asia-Pacific and beyond.
Could you share Takeda’s key efforts to improve public health in Vietnam in the near future?
Ping: Takeda Vietnam is committed to partnering with the national healthcare system under our vision of “Better Health, Brighter Future”, focusing on three areas.
We’re committed to support Vietnam in preventing infectious diseases, especially dengue fever, by introducing dengue vaccine and working closely with health authorities to support the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal of zero preventable dengue deaths by 2030. This includes strengthening scientific communication and sustainable prevention models that combine vaccination, vector control, and epidemiological surveillance.
We’re working to expand patient access to innovative medicines in gastrointestinal and inflammation, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, oncology, neuroscience and vaccines while enhancing healthcare workers’ capabilities in early diagnosis and treatment through public–private partnerships.
In 2021–2024, Takeda Vietnam partnered with Japan’s National Centre for Global Health and Medicine and the Ho Chi Minh Society of Asthma, Allergy, and Clinical Immunology on a hereditary angioedema initiative that trained over 7,500 healthcare professionals, screened over 100 suspected cases, diagnosed 35 patients, and established specialised treatment centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Lastly, we are committed to investing in local talent and capabilities to support Vietnam in human capital development. Our ambition is not only to bring life-transforming solutions to patients, but also to empower and give international exposure to our Vietnamese colleagues and partners to shape the future of healthcare in Vietnam.
We are accelerating digital and data capabilities across our organisation. This includes enhancing digital dexterity for our people, deploying advanced tools and platforms to support evidence-based decision-making, and exploring innovative care models such as remote engagement.
Dengue has been present in Vietnam for decades. Why is it still critical to take immediate and continuous action against it?
Ping: Dengue fever is an acute viral infection transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, with the potential to escalate into large-scale outbreaks. Anyone can contract dengue, and without timely detection and treatment, the risk of severe complications and death is high.
Vietnam is a dengue-endemic country, reporting an average over 100,000 cases annually, and in 2022 alone, a record-breaking 367,729 cases were documented. This alarming trend underscores the growing threat to public health, families, and the healthcare system.
Currently, there is no specific treatment for dengue, making prevention the only effective strategy to reduce disease burden. The WHO emphasises vaccines as a critical component of an integrated dengue prevention and control strategy, alongside surveillance, vector management, and patient care.
If we do not act now, the consequences will be severe: continued outbreaks, escalating healthcare costs, and preventable deaths.
How can Takeda contribute to the fight against dengue fever in Vietnam?
Ping: Dengue is a major public health burden in Vietnam, which stands among the highest incidence rates in Southeast Asia. From January to October 2025, Vietnam recorded 135,515 cases and 23 deaths, which is an increase of 28.1 per cent from the same period in 2024.
Managing dengue is becoming increasingly complex, with cases now occurring year-round and spreading across Vietnam. Market research shows that while awareness of dengue is high, the public may not fully understand its impact, including the burden on patients from hospitalisation and missed school or work. Dengue affects not only individuals’ health and wellbeing but also imposes a significant economic strain on families and society.
Takeda Vietnam looks to contribute by supporting a collective, comprehensive and long-term approach to dengue prevention in Vietnam. The first area is in healthcare capacity-building: over the last year, Takeda collaborated with Vietnamese leading medical associations and central hospitals to deliver 800 dengue training events, engaging healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, and preventive health workers.
Next, in partnership with the Vietnam associations, provincial Centres for Disease Control and media agencies, Takeda has supported public communication campaigns to raise awareness, encourage proactive prevention and the burden of dengue on the individual, family, and society.
Additionally, we see vaccines as part of the integrated strategy to control the disease. Takeda’s dengue vaccine has been recommended by the WHO for introduction in countries with a high disease burden, like Vietnam. It is currently approved in over 40 countries, with more than 21 million doses distributed globally across both public and private sectors. Takeda aims to produce 100 million doses annually by 2030 to ensure a stable global supply.
What leadership approach enables Takeda Vietnam to stay resilient and innovative in a fast-changing healthcare landscape?
Ping: Takeda’s vision is to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments, guided by our commitment to patients, our people and the planet.
At Takeda Vietnam, we embrace “bamboo leadership”, a philosophy inspired by the strength and flexibility of bamboo. Our focus is to have strong roots grounded in our values of integrity, perseverance, honesty, and fairness, a strong stem through the development of our people, especially in the area of digital dexterity and a flexible branch which reflects bringing innovative products to meet the needs of the Vietnam population like our dengue vaccine.
We also leverage digital technologies in order to improve engagement with healthcare workers, while boosting employee productivity, so teams can focus on value-added work that ultimately benefits patient care.
This leadership mindset ensures we remain responsive to Vietnam’s evolving healthcare needs while creating long-term value for patients and society. C-ANPROM/VN/NON/0094 Nov 2025
