With E. Macron’s visit to Astana, a healthcare round table and several agreements signed : a look back at the successes of French Healthcare Association companies at the France-Kazakhstan Business Forum.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has repeatedly expressed his desire to attract more foreign investors, with a particular focus on strengthening trade with France. In this context, Kazakh Invest organized the France-Kazakhstan Business Forum, on the occasion of President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit. The forum made a major contribution to promoting cooperation on health issues with French Healthcare Association companies in Kazakhstan.

During this gathering, made possible thanks to the French Embassy in Astana and Expertise France, numerous agreements were signed to launch cooperation in various fields. In the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, French authorities and companies were particularly keen to forge lasting partnerships in Kazakhstan. A dynamic in which French Healthcare Association has strengthened its place, following the business flows already initiated at the 2021 France-Kazakhstan Forum, preceding new exchanges with a delegation of Kazakh buyers at the two editions of the French Healthcare Innovation & Business Forum.

General Delegate Johanna Lerfel travelled to Astana, Kazakhstan, on the 1st of November, accompanied by several member companies, to take part in the Business Forum. She moderated a round table discussion focusing on the needs of Kazakh healthcare systems and global trends in the pharmaceutical industry.

An outstanding day for French-Kazakh cooperation on healthcare issues

On November 1st, the two countries reaffirmed their desire to cooperate in a number of areas, including access to healthcare and pharmaceutical supply. In this context, numerous business meetings were held between Kazakh companies and their French counterparts, aiming at creating new business flows.

To gain a better understanding of the challenges facing the healthcare sector and these new prospects for collaboration, the round table discussion moderated by Johanna Lerfel featured senior officials from the Kazakh Ministry of Health and several French ministries. Timur Sultangaziyev, Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Minister of Health, and Jerome Weinbach, Deputy Delegate for European and International Affairs at the Social Ministries, expressed their mutual interest in intensifying health cooperation between the two countries. In his speech, Mr. Weinbach took the opportunity to outline the various themes covered by the memoranda of understanding, including universal health coverage, training of medical staff, modernization of healthcare facilities, prevention of non-communicable diseases, and sharing best practices in mental healthcare…

Representatives of French companies and healthcare establishments then took the floor at the round table, sharing their expertise on two key health issues. Jérôme Soitier, CEO of C3 Médical, and Stephen Le Guille, Director of the Institut Curie, discussed practices to promote access to high-quality care in the region. Samuel Sancerni, Managing Director of DMS Imaging, Cedric Etlicher, Managing Director of SCALEO Medical, and Karim Vissanji, CEO of Sanofi‘s Campus Digital Tech, then addressed needs in drugs, and opportunities for the pharmaceutical and medical equipment sectors, with a particular focus on the French and European initiative on training in biomanufacturing. These rich exchanges led to a question-and-answer session.

Several bilateral agreements signed with French Healthcare Association member companies

A number of bilateral agreements were signed at the forum, in the presence of two delegate French Ministers, for Foreign Trade and Industry, Olivier Becht and Roland Lescure. Of the 15 agreements signed, 10 were healthcare-related, covering knowledge transfer or oncology diagnostics, for example, and most of them were signed with members of French Healthcare Association.

Three MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) were signed by C3 Médical, concerning the introduction of a modernized data-visualization system, the nationwide roll-out of telemedicine services, and the direction of a pilot project for breast cancer screening, using medical imaging.

The Institut Curie has also confirmed a number of partnerships with Kazakh hospitals to share its skills with, as part of the signing of an MoU with the Kazakh Ministry of Health’s National Scientific Center for Oncology.

Other MoUs have been signed with the Hopale Foundation on the care of rehabilitation patients, and with FUHI (France University Hospitals International) on health, medical science, education and exchanges of experience in partnership with Astana Medical University. These agreements consolidate French Healthcare Association network’s long-standing commitment to promoting access to quality healthcare in Kazakhstan.