The pharmaceutical
sector should encourage the research and development of essential medicines
that have not been produced in Vietnam,
said Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu.
The Health Minister so said at a conference in Hanoi on June 23 on raising the country’s
capability of accessing essential medicines.
He said that it was necessary to set up a list of essential medicines that the
country can produce, focusing on antibiotics and excipients to ensure a
sufficient supply of medicines for treatment and take effective measures to stablise
medicine prices.
In the coming time, the pharmaceutical sector needs to build a strategy to
attract investment in the industry, Trieu said. He added that the country also
needs to continue complete policies on human resources development in the
sector, promote the protection of intellectual property, increase the access to
essential medicines at reasonable prices and boost dissemination on essential medicines.
According to Head of the Department for Pharmaceutical Management Truong Quoc
Cuong, since 1995, Vietnam
has introduced a list of essential medicines, which has been adjusted periodically
to suit the country’s disease situation.
So far, the list includes 355 kinds of drugs with 314 active elements and 94
essentials using in traditional medicines.
At present, the country has nearly 42,000 retail drug stores nationwide.
However, 592 communal medical stations still have not got drug stores.
Ninety percent of materials for pharmaceutical production and many medicines
for special treatment have been imported.
During the conference, experts from the US, the UK and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) shared their experiences in using original medicines, the
transferring of the rights to drug production and regulations of prescription./.