Today, AmCham hosted an expert panel with three distinguished speakers who have have been involved in the battle against COVID-19 and the mass vaccination campaign since the very first day.
Ad Antonisse, Director Market Access & External Affairs at AstraZeneca and co-chair of AmCham’s Healthcare Committee, and Ilse van Hensbeek, Medical Director at AstraZeneca, gave an insider’s account of the development and approval process of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the hurdles that had to be overcome. Prof. dr. Ernst Kuipers, CEO Erasmus MC and (among others) Chair of the Dutch National Network Emergency Medicine, spoke about the current pandemic situation and placed it in a historical context. He also addressed evolving challenges and gave an outlook on future threats. There is an urgent need to better prepare for pandemics and disasters such as the current coronavirus crisis. A newly established Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center will be able to play an important role worldwide in preparing for future disasters and pandemics. The center is a collaboration between TU Delft, Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC) and Erasmus University Rotterdam, and brings together top scientists in the fields of medicine, engineering (including AI), logistics and sociology. The session was concluded with a Q&A with the Members.
AmCham cordially thanks Ad Antonisse, Ilse van Hensbeek and Prof. dr. Ernst Kuipers for their contribution to this webinar, and for their groundbreaking work in the battle against COVID-19.
