The US-based Eli Lilly and Company, one of the world’s pharmaceutical giants, has opened a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, making Vietnam the 11 th destination in Asia that it has reached out to.

Lilly will focus its global expertise and stellar history on diabetes and oncology treatment, its Vice President and Director of Asian Operations Jannine Oosthuizen said at the opening last week.

“These are areas in which Lilly has an extremely strong history and an extensive commitment to research and development. An unrelenting culture of innovation saw us invest almost 5.3 billion USD in research and development last year,” he added.

The company is also known as the first to commercially introduce insulin as a means of treating diabetes.

In Vietnam, diabetes has affected nearly 5 million people, a number that has grown by an unprecedented 211 percent in the past decade. The country also records one of the highest cancer prevalence rates in the world with about 150,000 new cases every year.-VBA