Domestically-made medicines making up 80 percent of total consumption is one of the goals set forth in a national strategy to develop the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry until 2020.

The strategy also envisions that all medicines are sufficient for disease treatment and prevention, including vaccines for an expanded national inoculation scheme with 30 percent for public services.

All drugstores as well as vaccine and medical biological product test stations are expected to meet good pharmacy practice standards while the entire sector is able to meet 20 percent of materials demand for medicine production.

Inspection of a chemist. Photo: VNA

At a conference to launch the strategy in Hanoi on December 6th, Deputy Minister of Public Health Pham Le Tuan revealed that as many as 133 drug manufacturers and nearly 10,000 drugstores satisfy good pharmacy practice standards as of late November this year.

He pointed out that most of all domestically-made drugs sold in the market are generic types which require low-cost, simple manufacturing that often caused unhealthy competitions among producers.

The sector has yet to tap the potential of medicinal resources locally available, he said.
Besides, the drug distribution system is still weak in management, infrastructure and connectivity, and reliant on foreigners to regulate prices and supply of specialized drugs and vaccines.

Participants also talked about the safe use of medicines and the development of national products for vaccination campaigns.

Source: VNA