PM prescribes remedies for pharmaceutical sector

 

Hanoi (VNA) – The lack of a master plan has been blamed for Vietnam
having to import up to 80 percent of its processed pharmaceutical materials
although the country has an abundant source of pharmaceutical materials and was
one of top of raw pharmaceutical materials in the 1980s.

Professor Dau Xuan Canh, Director of Vietnam Institute of
Traditional Medicine, said Vietnam’s climate was believed to be very favourable
for growing many categories of medicinal plants.

However, scattered development could result in losing the
opportunity to fully develop the potential of the country’s pharmaceutical
sector, he added. He spoke at a recent meeting on boosting the growth of the
national pharmaceutical industry, as reported by Thoi bao kinh doanh (Business
Times) newspaper.

For example, is failing to exploit the potential of
cinnamon trees that are widely planted in our country, he said. “We could turn
it into processed pharmaceutical material to serve the domestic pharmaceutical
industry, but we do not,” he said.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
ranks Vietnam in the third of five levels of pharmaceutical sector development,
reflecting the fact that the domestic pharmaceutical sector imports most of the
processed pharmaceutical materials it needs.

Data from the Ministry of Investment and Planning showed that Vietnam
ranks 16 of 22 countries in terms of pharmaceutical industry development, based
on its total drug consumption worth about 4.8 billion USD each year. The Vietnam
pharmaceutical market was also assessed to have the highest growth rate in the
Southeast Asia region, equal to 17 percent each year, projected to reach around
10 billion USD by 2020.

However, most domestic pharmaceutical producers are small-scale
and scattered in various areas of the country, the Ministry of Industry and
Trade said. Only seven of 170 producers manufactured chemicals for the local
pharmaceutical industry.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien also admitted the paradox
of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. She said Vietnam was an agricultural
country with an abundant source of , including
minerals, animals and medicinal plants.

A report issued by the health ministry last year said Vietnam has
206 medicinal plants that could grow and provide 10,000-20,000 tonnes of
pharmaceutical materials each year.

But sadly, most of processed pharmaceutical materials now are
imported, Tien said.

Vietnam also imports all its anti-cancer chemicals at exorbitant
prices while it has many trees containing anti-cancer drug precursors, such as
red pine (taxus wallichiana zucc) and Madagascar periwinkle (catharanthus
roseus), she said.

Solutions

At a recent workshop on development of the national pharmaceutical
industry, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc announced three major directions.

First, the role of pharmaceutical materials should be re-assessed
on a national and provincial scale, and then a detailed plan should be
formulated to boost it. “Developing the domestic pharmaceutical sector by
domestic pharmaceutical materials should be a strategy of the health sector,”
he said.

Second, the pharmaceutical sector was asked to serve domestic
demand before turning to export. Authorised agencies were tasked with creating
favouable conditions to encourage businesses to participate in the
pharmaceutical sector, he said.

Last, the national pharmaceutical sector needs to be restructured,
especially focusing on the processing and production stages, he said.

The PM ordered the health ministry to co-operate with the Vietnam
Pharmaceutical Companies Association to make a list of 100 for
extensive growing on a large scale.

The Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development was tasked with
responsibility to provide appropriate seedlings.

A supply chain consisting of farmers, businesses, scientists,
State managerial agencies and commercial banks should be established so that
the national pharmaceutical sector can be better developed, he said.-VNA