Workshop seeks to increase access to essential medicines

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./.