Kuuno Vaher is Cluster Country Director for Central Europe – Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. He graduated in pharmacy from the University of Tartu, Estonia. He joined AstraZeneca in 2007 and his main mission is to ensure that all healthcare professionals work closely together to deliver consistently better outcomes for patients.
HE Fredrik Jörgensen has been the Swedish Ambassador to the Czech Republic since fall 2020. The Ambassador’s diplomatic career, starting in the late 80’s, has taken him to countries such as Germany, South Africa, Italy and Denmark including stops home in Sweden. Working to nurture the already good relations between the two countries the Ambassador states “both countries are big enough to make a difference, but small enough to realize the need for international cooperation and partnerships.”
What is the Swedish diplomatic and business approach to current pharmaceutical issues? We asked two interesting personalities.
What are some of the major challenges and opportunities facing the healthcare industry today?
Kuuno Vaher: A major factor affecting healthcare systems in the whole Europe is the consequences of having an aging population, which put us in a new situation to face the highly increasing number of patients with chronic diseases, such as oncological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and other diagnoses. In the last two years, we could have learnt from the Covid-19 crisis that pressuretested our whole society and healthcare systems. This period taught us as a pharmaceutical company to innovate even faster, speed up the supply of medicines, come up with new ways of doctor-patient communication and create space for a new way of providing health care through digital tools.
This active approach must be further developed as more challenges will come. In order to cope with them, it is necessary to have a wellestablished and resilient healthcare system and to ensure sustainable financing. Digitization of healthcare and the expansion of the system of collection and sharing of healthcare data at the local and European level should significantly help to achieve it.
We, as AstraZeneca, need to constantly innovate how to treat more effectively, while at the same time to investigate the areas of highly unmet medical needs and ensure our research efforts are spread out accordingly. Considering that, AstraZeneca is investing in the range of 25 % of its revenue into Research and Development. As a result, we have participated in developing innovative medicines to treat approximately a hundred different specific diseases and we are one of the fastest growing top drug developers globally and in the Czech Republic.
Fredrik Jörgensen: One obvious common challenge, and an opportunity for us to cooperate, is in the treatment of cancer. We can see that there are great inequalities in cancer mortality rates between and within EU countries. Therefore, sharing best practices is of crucial importance. Not only in the actual techniques for treatment and care, but also as regards organizational solutions. A lot can be learned by studying the successes and failures of other Member States. Also, technical aspects can be studied together with partners, learning from the best examples. The positive sense of energy in the plan, and the belief in being able to do more together is inspiring.
Another important area for cooperation concerns rare diseases and pediatric medicines and is covered by the long-awaited proposal of the European Commission for the revision of the EU pharmaceutical legislation which was presented in April this year. We need to make sure that a broad spectrum of stakeholders (patients, academia, industry, and regulatory bodies) is listened to, in our attempts to see to the needs for children in a more structured way.
What do you consider to be the greatest achievement of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU in healthcare?
Kuuno Vaher: Looking back to the last six months, the Swedish presidency has left some great achievements behind, following the successes of the previous Czech presidency. Firstly, accelerating the introduction of the EU Commission´s proposal for new pharmaceutical legislation brings an opportunity to make the environment more efficient by fostering drug registration and increase the equal availability of medicines for patients of EU member states. We only must make sure that the legislation does not represent a risk for maintaining innovative potential in Europe.
Secondly, Sweden also took over the imaginary baton in the fight against cancer, when it followed up on the implementation of the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, in the presentation of which the Czech Republic also took part. With the quality of the screening and treatment of cancer, both the Czech Republic and Sweden are going in a very good direction. We would very much like if next presidencies would build on this great example of EU initiative and continue with the same pattern, also with cardiovascular diseases, which are the most common cause of death in most of EU countries.
Fredrik Jörgensen: Besides the work with the revision of the EU pharmaceutical legislation, I would like to highlight our work with digitization and data-based decision making. The Commission´s proposal to create a European Health Data Space is being negotiated between Member States, and Sweden is leading those negotiations. Under Sweden’s Vision for eHealth 2025, the national government and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has set an ambitious goal: essentially that Sweden should lead the world in using digital tech to make it easier for people to live in good health. Sweden is a frontrunner in Europe when it comes to providers that make healthcare digitally more accessible – we were pioneers in launching online doctor apps eight to ten years ago. I hope that we can promote digital solutions also in a European perspective.
Building a resilient health system is a priority since Covid-19, what are the major components of such readiness?
Kuuno Vaher: Healthcare digitization, data harmonization and analysis ensure we can secure better tailored care for every patient while ensuring healthcare sustainability. To manage more and more complex treatment schemes and increase patient flow we need to free up the workload of nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers using algorithms and AI solutions. Digital tools can identify diseases earlier (e.g., early lung cancer screening or cardiovascular multi-risk algorithms), but also can help us improve our supply chain when delivering medicines, design smarter clinical trials, better understand the diseases and use precision-based medicine in practice. We have been very active in this area, sharing examples of specific projects we have developed with our partners to optimize patient pathways. The ability of the public, the private sector, and academia to cooperate will be crucial, because it is only through a multi-stakeholder engagement approach that we will have an opportunity to really shape the environment.
How do you perceive the benefit of sharing experience between Sweden and the Czech Republic in the field of healthcare innovation? What have we learned from each other so far?
Kuuno Vaher: Sweden and the Czech Republic face similar healthcare challenges: an aging population, a lack of healthcare workers, fragmented healthcare systems, challenges in the speed of introducing new innovative therapies and the opportunity to benefit more from healthcare digitalization. Since 2021, AstraZeneca together with the Swedish embassy and Business Sweden have held several strategic events on diverse topics such as vaccination strategies, coronary diseases, oncology, and rare diseases. The leading healthcare experts, decision makers, doctors, patient organization representatives from Sweden and the Czech Republic have shared best practices, learned from each other, and built connections. Considering the Czech-Swedish EU presidencies, we have agreed on expanding our cooperation with tailormade initiatives organized jointly with the Ministry of Health. We really appreciate this way of collaboration, and we remain committed to contributing to this alliance.
Fredrik Jörgensen: Our countries have a similar size population, are technically advanced, the standard of healthcare is generally high and there are also great innovative skills. The will to improve, to perfect practical solutions and technical systems somehow lie in the DNA of both Czechs and Swedes. Both countries are big enough to make a difference in the search for European solutions. At the same time, we are small enough to put into effect the need for cooperation across borders and disciplines. For several years we have worked under the umbrella of the „Czech-Swedish Healthcare Innovation Platform“ and we can think of no better partner in moving ahead. However, to make our efforts meaningful, the government should support the access to innovation and provide a transparent and forward leaning framework for this.
How can we benefit from the mutual collaboration in the future?
Kuuno Vaher: Both Sweden and the Czech Republic have their unique strengths and experiences in healthcare innovation. It adds a lot of value to use the already proven practices, to compare the results and brainstorm in the areas where further improvement is needed. Via this open collaboration, we can easier achieve the faster implementation of innovative healthcare solutions and better outcomes for patients.
Fredrik Jörgensen: Cooperation among countries and horizontal partnerships optimize existing health capacities and encourage the sharing of know-how between partners. Such cooperation can strengthen and accelerate health care development at the national level, like in creating the momentum for change and contributing to national health policy dialogue, but also it may lead to intercountry exchanges affecting subregional and regional integration processes, as well as global health policy debates. All these processes create important spaces for dialogue and diplomacy among countries.
Thank you for the interview.
