Import Expo gives us chance to share our China success story
MSD’s booth at China International Import Expo
The China International Import Expo (CIIE) is a strong exemplar of China’s openness to the outside world, and MSD is proud to be part of the event, said Joseph Romanelli, senior vice president of MSD and president of MSD in China.
“This is an important event to demonstrate the impact of many years of opening up,” said Romanelli during an exclusive interview with Shanghai Daily.
“It will also be a great opportunity for us to share the story of MSD in China, from its inception and early beginnings, all the way to where we are today, proud to be one of the leading biopharmaceutical companies in China.”
Joseph Romanelli, Senior vice president of MSD and president of MSD in China
To demonstrate its commitment, MSD has set up a nearly 800-square-meter booth in the Medical Equipment & Health Care Products Exhibition Area at the expo. There are showcases of MSD’s history and milestones in China, abundant product portfolios from disease prevention to treatments, innovative pipelines and medical solutions for various diseases, as well as its contributions to improving medical accessibility and affordability.
There is also a virtual online booth for people who cannot visit the CIIE physically. Through the online booth, everyone can become engaged and learn how MSD maintains longstanding efforts to discover new products, services and provide digital health solutions in order to expand access to quality, affordable medicines and vaccines for the people of China.
“The event shows that the Chinese government is willing to partner and work with foreign multinational companies for the good of Chinese citizens,” said Romanelli. “Overall, the event is outstanding and we at MSD are honored to have this opportunity to participate to celebrate the progress that is being made toward Healthy China 2030.”
Under the theme of “Inventing for Life,” MSD not only demonstrates its great contribution to the public health in China for the past 30 years, but also showcases MSD’s unremitting efforts to improve the accessibility and affordability of innovative products from “prevention to cure.”
Apart from bigger space and extensive preparations, MSD will also host an event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of MSD’s agreement with China to transfer MSD’s groundbreaking hepatitis B vaccine technology. Thirty years ago, MSD provided China with the technology for the production of its hepatitis B vaccine after seeing the urgent need in the country to prevent the deadly liver disease. At the time, 10 percent of the population was estimated to be infected. MSD also trained Chinese engineers and technicians to ensure the same quality vaccines that were made in the US could be produced in the Chinese plants. The rate of carriers of hepatitis B among children in China aged from one to four fell to 3 percent in 2014 by vaccination.
“This year marks the 30th anniversary of this memorable initiative, which also coincides with the second CIIE,” Romanelli said.
“Through this platform, we can not only celebrate the 30th anniversary of the start of our joint effort to tackle national health challenges with visitors at the expo, but also jointly discuss with industry partners how we can contribute further to realizing the goal of the government’s Healthy China 2030 plan,” Romanelli said.
