Retail sales of drugs and medicinal herbs are an important link in the pharmaceutical supply chain, directly affecting treatment effectiveness and health safety of people. Recently, the Government issued Decree No. 90/2026/ND-CP regulating penalties for administrative violations in the health sector.
Article 59 mentions violations of regulations on retail sale of drugs and medicinal herbs as follows:
1. A fine of between 1 million VND and 3 million VND shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Selling pre-processed medicinal herbs that do not meet quality standards according to regulations of competent authorities;
b) People directly involved in retail drug sales who do not have professional qualifications as prescribed by law;
c) Not opening books or not using computers to manage import, export, storage, track batch numbers, expiration dates, origin of drugs and other related information as prescribed by law;
d) Buying and selling drugs that violate quality at level 3 according to the provisions of law after a recall notice has been issued;
e) Not clearly stating the drug name, dosage, and expiry date for users in cases of retail sale of drugs not contained in the outer packaging of the drug; in cases where there is no accompanying prescription, not stating the dosage, number of uses and how to use it;
e) Not keeping documents and materials related to the batch of drugs and drug ingredients during the period of storage according to the provisions of law;
g) Not cooperating or obstructing the quality control agency from taking samples of drugs or drug ingredients for quality control.
2. A fine of 3 million VND to 5 million VND shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
a) Changing the location of a pharmaceutical retail establishment at the same business location or expanding a pharmaceutical retail establishment or repairing, major changes in the structure of a pharmaceutical retail establishment that the pharmaceutical retail establishment does not report the change with technical documents corresponding to the change according to the provisions of law;
b) There is no separate area for non-drug products or no signboard in the separate area clearly stating "this product is not a drug" or mixing non-drug products with drugs for cases of trading in cosmetics, functional foods, and medical equipment according to the provisions of law;
c) Buying and selling drugs that violate quality at level 2 according to the provisions of law after a recall notice has been issued;
d) No information technology equipment connected to the internet and managing drug purchase and sale activities using application software or not ensuring control of origin, price, origin of drugs purchased and sold or not ensuring drug traceability or not ensuring full data extraction of the above information when requested by management agencies or not fully interlinking and updating data with the pharmaceutical information system according to the guidance of the Ministry of Health.
