HCM City focuses on drug supply

HCM City ensures adequate and timely . Illustrative image (Photo: soha.vn)

HCM City (VNA) – Ensuring adequate and timely supply of medicines, especially for the
prevention and treatment of and to specialised departments at
hospitals, will be the central aspect of HCM City’s Strategy on National
Pharmaceutical Development.

The national strategy incorporates plans and targets by provinces and cities
based on the local prevalence of diseases and socio-economic status.

By 2020, its last year, the rate of use of medicines made in the country will
rise as the city gives priority to and obtaining
production rights to .

It will create more conditions for drug manufacturers to invest in technologies
for extracting and producing herbal medicines, and cooperate with neighbouring
provinces to expand cultivation of medical plants.

Thirty percent of drug manufacturers in the city will meet international
standards by 2020.

Forty percent of registered generic medicines produced in the city will match
brand-name products in dosage, strength, administration method, quality,
performance, and intended use.

All drug stores will follow good distribution and pharmacy practices.
The HCM City Centre for Quality Control of Food, Drug, and Cosmetics will
follow good laboratory practices.

All hospitals in the city will have standard warehouses to store medicines and
50 percent of them will set up a clinical pharmacy division by 2020. The figure
will rise to 100 percent by 2030.

Clinical pharmacy is vital for ensuring the safe and proper use of medicines,
improving the efficacy of treatment and avoiding wastages for patients,
according to the University Medical Centre of HCM City.

On the website of the city Department of Health, Dr Nguyen Tri Thanh, head of
the University Medical Centre’s general planning division, said it also helps
better monitor antibiotic use, reducing drug resistance.

However, one challenge for hospitals is the shortage of human resources in the
clinical pharmacy division, causing difficulties for the strategy and making it
hard for hospitals to attract and keep clinical pharmacists, the department
said.

According to the National Drug Information and Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring
Centre, it has seen an increase in reports on adverse drug reactions at
hospitals and by drug manufacturers and distributors from 711 in 2003 to 9754 as of October
last year.-VNA