Dr. Pelin Incesu, Area Vice President for MEA at AstraZeneca: Navigating from Vaccines to Net Zero

“Dr. Pelin Incesu, AstraZeneca’s Area Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, on Putting Patients First, From the Pandemic to Net Zero”

Dr. Pelin Incesu came to the pharmaceutical industry from the clinic. Before she joined AstraZeneca in 2000, she trained as a medical doctor and psychiatrist, and she says that background still shapes how she leads. “I am originally a medical doctor and psychiatrist, so I know the patient’s needs,” she has said.

Over more than two decades at the company she has worked across medical, marketing, government affairs and commercial roles. She served as company president for Türkiye and as vice president of commercial strategy and international before taking charge of the Middle East and Africa in May 2020. The region covers around 70 countries, and AstraZeneca operates in 46 of them. In 2021 the division reported revenues of $1.2 billion, and Incesu set a goal of reaching $2 billion by 2025.

Lessons from the pandemic

She took up the role just as COVID-19 was spreading. AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford developed one of the first COVID-19 vaccines, which the company supplied on a not-for-profit basis during the pandemic. In her region, Incesu’s teams also shifted toward home-based care so that patients with chronic conditions could keep getting treatment. The experience underlined a point she makes often: in some countries, health infrastructure is not yet mature enough, so the company works with local associations, authorities and governments to help build it.

That approach shows up in its partnerships. In December 2022, AstraZeneca signed a strategic partnership with G42 Healthcare to manufacture pharmaceutical products in Abu Dhabi. In February 2023, it partnered with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs and the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center to strengthen local research and development. Flagship programs such as Healthy Heart Africa and the Young Health Programme run across the region. “We truly put the patients at the heart of everything,” Incesu says.

The road to net zero

Incesu is also a vocal advocate for climate action in healthcare, a sector responsible for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. “If the healthcare sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter on the planet,” she wrote in 2022.

AstraZeneca’s answer is Ambition Zero Carbon, a program backed by a $1 billion investment that aims for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and more resilient supply chains. Its targets were verified by the Science Based Targets initiative, and AstraZeneca was among the first seven companies worldwide to have net-zero targets validated under the Net-Zero Corporate Standard.

The region has its own projects. In Ghana, the Ghana Living Lab, run with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, aims to plant 4.5 million trees over 10 years. In Türkiye, the company’s e-waste goes to the country’s first electronic recycling facility, with proceeds funding reforestation. In Egypt, green roofs are being installed in schools with the Swedish Embassy and two Egyptian ministries. In the Gulf, AstraZeneca hosted a climate and health roundtable at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Inside the company, Incesu has backed the MEA Women in Leadership Programme and the “Not Here … Not Anywhere!” campaign against bullying and harassment. For her, growth, patient care and sustainability are part of the same job.