Vietnam medicinal material supplies grow

Vietnam has a huge source of medicinal materials, but production in recent years has failed to meet expectations, with continuing imports of domestically available materials

Vietnam has a huge source of medicinal materials, but production in recent years has failed to meet expectations, with continuing imports of domestically available materials. In recent years, several successful examples of producing and trading medicinal materials have helped the Vietnamese medicine market affirm its position on domestic and international markets.

Import reliance despite huge potential

According to a survey by the National Institute of Medicinal Materials (NIMM), Vietnam now has seven ecological zones rich in medicinal materials with approximately 3,948 species of medicinal plants, 52 species of marine alga, 75 mineral types, and 408 species of animals used as medicine. Among them are many types of globally recognised high-value medicinal materials like anise, aquilaria, cinnamon, artichoke, Ngoc Linh ginseng, mangrove, sophora japonica, mimosa pudica and gynostemma pentaphyllum. Annually, Vietnam can harvest 3,000-5,000 tonnes of medicinal materials. With a diversity of species, Vietnam is considered a major source of medicinal materials. According to Mr Dinh Cong Bay, General Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Medicinal Materials Association, Vietnam only uses 50 % of its local medicinal materials while the rate in China is 90 %.

While local resources remain unused, Vietnam relies heavily on foreign medicinal materials. According to the Vietnam Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health, Vietnam has to import 90 % of materials for medicine manufacturing, even those widely available in Vietnam. Traditional medicinal materials and medicines are mainly imported from Taiwan, China and Singapore.

“While Vietnam exports nearly 100 types of semi-finished and finished medicines worth some US$50 million a year, it has to import raw materials for these products, mainly from China,” Mr Bay emphasised.

According to Dr Nguyen Ba Hoat, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Vietnam used to produce over 20 types of medicines in a large quantity, but it now has to import them again, including angelica, atractylodes macrocephala, scrophularia bucrgerianam and achyranthes. The country has to import some 45 species of plants formerly grown domestically like lablab purpureus, adenosma glutinosum and andrographis paniculata. This also happened to 25 kinds of wild medicinal plants Vietnam used to export.

Another current top concern is that low quality medicinal materials are widely imported on unofficial channels, especially cross-border trade. It is difficult to keep bad products at bay and sometimes good-quality products cannot compete with cheap low-quality items.

Avoiding a defeat on the home market

While the world has earned much from medicinal material and medicine sources, Vietnam is still struggling with unplanned material development, which a high risk of volatility. Moreover, the country lacks a professional body in charge of technical production processes, leading to unstable production, quality and price. These advantages blunt the competiveness of Vietnamese medicinal materials.

In order to avoid a defeat on the home market, Vietnam urgently needs to diversify herb species and expand the cultivated area to reduce reliance on imported raw materials and increase exports. Dr Dinh Cong Bay said, to do this, the State must play a central role in planning and developing cultivated area. At the same time, it needs to keep a central role in building preferential policies and creating the best conditions for businesses, researchers and farmers to link their activities and develop effective medicinal herbs. The State should also take necessary measures and impose strict sanctions against the excessive exploitation of rare medicinal sources for export to foreign countries. The efforts of pharmaceutical companies are also a driving motivation to promote the development of the Vietnamese medicinal material industry.

Exemplary successes

Though not many, Vietnam has successful drug makers like Bao Long Herb Medicinal Group. In spite of difficulties, Bao Long entered remote areas of Lai Chau province to establish a pharmaceutical company named Sin Ho. The group invested a large sum of money to build infrastructure for the company like a power station, irrigation system, office, accommodation, drying grounds, drying ovens, storage and areas for growing medicinal herbs. With its investment, Bao Long received another 500 hectares of forestland for growing medicinal herbs from the Lai Chau province. In 2009, Bao Long set up Bac Ha Medicinal Herb Company in Lao Cai province, helping recover precious medicinal materials sources in the country.

Thien Duoc Co., Ltd. has developed mimosa pudica growing area in Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Phu Yen provinces to gather enough raw materials for production of medicines for the domestic market.

Domesco Medical Import Export Joint Stock Corporation, located in Dong Thap province, has made synchronous investments and taken advantage of preferential policies to exploit, preserve, collect and process local medicinal herbs. Domesco has invested in factories meeting GMP – WHO standards and invested in planting areas meeting GACP standards in Tri Ton district, An Giang province.

Other pharmaceutical companies like Traphaco Joint Stock Company, OPC Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company and Vietnam Chemistry Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (VCP) are also very successful in using domestically sourced medicinal materials for production. – VCCI

Tags: Vietnam healthcare sector, Vietnam medicinal materials