Vietnam aims to raise the share of locally-made medicines to 80% of the domestic market by 2020 from the current 50%, with a focus on the production of generic drugs, said Truong Quoc Cuong, head of the Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health. Generic drugs, which are produced when industrial property rights of patent medicine have expired so they are usually cheap, could help gradually replace the imported ones, Mr. Cuong told the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper on Dec 9. Currently, the country has 133 GMP standard medicine manufacturers and there are 177 GSP-certified distributors and around 40,000 drug stores nationwide, he said. Mr. Cuong added that the value of local pharmaceutical market was estimated at $1.35 billion in 2013, with each Vietnamese spending $31.18 on drugs per annum. The official, however, said that the sector was facing challenges such as the low capacity to meet domestic demand and high dependence on imported drugs and materials. Up to 90% of drug materials are being imported, he noted. In addition, though the local producers have produced over 12,000 various medicines, they are just simple kinds such as vitamins, tonic (multivitamin with minerals), painkillers, febrifuge and anti-inflammatory drug and the country has to import the narcotic, cardiovascular. In order to reduce distribution cost as well as drug prices, the health ministry will set up five distribution centers in the northern mountainous districts, central northern provinces, central southern provinces, highlands provinces, and the Mekong Delta. The ministry will also set up a scientific council on medicine bidding and an index of standard medicine prices, Mr. Cuong said. (www.sggp.org.vn [1] Dec 9)
