solutions needed to stabilise pharmaceuticals market

05:28' 07/05/2008 (GMT+7)

According to the Ministry of Health, by the end of the first quarter of 2008, drug prices on the domestic market had risen by 8.93 percent. However, experts said that unforeseeable circumstances in both world and domestic markets had caused the abrupt increase in drug prices similar to what happened in early 2004.

Deputy Minister of Health Cao Minh Quang attributed the failure to control current drug prices to political instability in many countries around the world, the complicated situation in the domestic market, natural disasters and the soaring inflation rate.

In addition, the prices of input materials, which make up 90 percent of businesses’ production costs have driven domestic drug prices up. Meanwhile, imported medicines continue to be dominated by the global market.

The limited import of rare medicines has led to a monopoly on some drugs and difficulties in controlling the prices of others.

According to the Ministry of Health, approximately 20,000 kinds of drugs are sold in Vietnam. However, domestic producers only focus on common medicines at lower prices.

Meanwhile, poor distribution networks have also increased intermediate costs before patients can access the drugs, Mr Quang said

Many businesses prefer to import drugs through go-betweens rather than import directly from foreign producers in order to enjoy a percentage of their profits. Furthermore, more than 39,000 pharmacies have failed to meet the necessary requirements in terms of space and facilities under the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) standard. Currently, less than 40 pharmacies meet the GPP standard compared to the set target of having all GPP pharmacies nationwide by 2011.

According to the Pharmaceutical Product Management Administration, bad quality medicines accounted for 3.30 percent of the total drug samples in 2007, higher than the 2006 level of 3.18 percent while poor-quality medicines with a herbal origin made up a rather higher proportion of 10.8 percent.

Director of the Vietnamese National Institute of Drug Quality Control (NIDQC) Trinh Van Lau said that the amounts of low quality and fake drugs, including domestic and foreign drugs is increasing. In particular, imported drugs and oriental medicines which do not reach quality standards account for more than 10 percent. Mr Lau added that any kind of drug, which sells like hot cakes in the market will be copied immediately. The technology used to copy drugs is so sophisticated that even the real producers get fooled. In the past fake drugs appeared in remote areas but now they are available in the big cities. Antibiotic drugs and oriental medicines are the most copied.

Withdrawing from circulation and confiscation fake and low quality drugs has not been implementing in time. Furthermore, supervising the revoking of drugs is weak.

In order to control prices of drugs in the future, at a recent national meeting of the drug sector, deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan suggested setting up a website to list the prices of every drug and the punishments for violations. He urged the relevant agencies to strictly observe the quality of drugs and the distribution network and publicise the prices.

A long-term solution for controlling the price of drugs is to develop the pharmaceutical industry to gradually produce important antibiotic materials and organic pharmaceuticals to ensure enough materials for the domestic drugs industry. In 2008, the sector will also accelerate the production of domestic drugs as well as Generic drugs to supply the public healthcare system.

Mr Quang emphasised that to stabilise the pharmaceuticals market, Vietnam should increase its supplies and apply standards on the preservation and distribution of drugs to 39,016 retail drug sellers all over the country.