The Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has successfully summarized a series of international seminars on "Reforming the pharmaceutical management system and improving the capacity of health management agencies on good drug registration practices" at VCCI headquarters, Hanoi.
This is a coordination activity with the Department of Drug Administration, Ministry of Health, with partial support from the Health Working Group (HWG) of the Asia Pacific Cooperation Forum (APEC).
Speaking at the event, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan - Deputy General Secretary of VCCI, concurrently Head of the Legal Committee, said that the Politburo recently issued Resolution 72-NQ/TW - an important document on "Some breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health", towards a modern, fair and effective health system. This orientation requires more active contributions from the health sector, especially the pharmaceutical sector.
The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Pharmacy Law, issued in 2024, has added a number of more breakthrough regulations than the 2016 Pharmacy Law to attract investment and further promote research and development of drug and pharmaceutical ingredient production.
Previously, in 2023, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1165/QD-TTg approving the National Strategy for the Development of Vietnam's Pharmaceutical Industry to 2030, with a vision to 2045, aiming to turn Vietnam into a high-value pharmaceutical production center in the region, ensuring people have reasonable access to drugs at cost and improving drug quality management capacity.
According to Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Vietnam has initially achieved positive results: From ensuring drug supply, improving domestic production capacity, promoting digital transformation, to increasing the proportion of in-house drugs in medical facilities.
The Ministry of Health has promoted administrative reform, applied information technology in granting circulation licenses, and added appraisal units to shorten the time for processing documents.
However, in addition to positive results, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan said that it is necessary to continue focusing on implementing a number of key groups of solutions such as: continuing to review and perfect the legal corridor in the pharmaceutical sector, creating open and transparent conditions to attract investment and develop the pharmaceutical industry.
Continue to promote administrative procedure reform, decentralization, and delegation of authority to improve management efficiency and serve people and businesses.
The management of drug quality and prices will continue to be strengthened, ensuring the reasonable and effective use of drugs, preventing fake drugs and poor quality drugs. Promote the application of technology and comprehensive digital transformation in pharmaceutical industry management.
With the desire to contribute to the common efforts to promote the development of the pharmaceutical industry and international integration, including the active contributions of pharmaceutical enterprises, VCCI has implemented a program to improve the capacity of enterprises and management agencies in good practice in drug registration, management and effective implementation of pharmaceutical laws.
VCCI has proposed to cooperate with the Medical Working Group of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum to implement a project to improve the capacity of health agencies for good practices in drug registration in Vietnam.
Mr. Tuan said that the goal of the project is to contribute to reforming the pharmaceutical regulations structure of APEC member economies and Vietnam, towards a sustainable and harmonious drug management framework, facilitating trade and investment in the health sector between APEC economies.
Improve the capacity of health agencies and experts in Vietnam through sharing experiences of good practices applied in other APEC economies, thereby increasing efficiency in drug registration and management, as well as improving patient access to drugs.
