Vietnam targets pharmaceuticals sector

Improving the domestic pharmaceutical industry would be the health sector’s highest priority in the coming years in order to satisfy 70 per cent of the nation’s demand by 2015, said Deputy Minister of Health Cao Minh Quang.

Quang made the statement at a workshop held yesterday in Ha Noi by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

“The pharmaceutical industry of Viet Nam is facing many challenges such as overlapping investment and a lack of attention for production of special and technology-intensive medicines,” said Quang.

“The existing policies are not strong enough to encourage the use of local medicines, support export or call for foreign investment to Viet Nam’s pharmaceutical sector.”

Health ministry statistics show that the value of the nation’s total medicine consumption reached more than US$1.9 billion last year. Local production was valued at nearly $920 million and met 48 per cent of the nation’s needs.

“Access to essential medicines still remains a public health concern in Viet Nam,” said WHO Representative in Viet Nam Graham Harrison.

For example, child medications had a very limited availability in both the public and private sector, he said.

“The local pharmaceutical production policy should therefore be aimed primarily at meeting public health needs and ensuring that safe and quality-assured medicines should be available at all times.”

Deputy Director of the Viet Nam Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Trade Association Nguyen Quy Son said that most drug manufacturing firms in Viet Nam had modest capital investment sources, ranging from $1-5billion. The lack of capital and human resources contributed to the inability of local firms to compete with international groups in the domestic market.

“The Government should promulgate more preferential policies for domestic pharmaceutical firms and widely promote the use of domestic medicines over imported medicines,” he said.

The Ministry of Health forecasts that the size of the Viet Nam pharmaceutical market will exceed $2 billion and annual growth will reach between 17-19 per cent this year. — VNS

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