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Hospitals across the country are lacking Plasma-derived Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG), which is needed for the treatment of child patients with severe hand, foot and mouth disease in the southern provinces and cities. Worse, many localities have not stored this drug - which can only be produced from human plasma and cannot be produced domestically.
IVIG is an effective adjuvant treatment for severe cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, reducing the rate of transfer as well as the rate of severe complications of hand, foot and mouth disease in children.
IVIG is prepared directly from human plasma, so production will depend entirely on the supply of plasma through blood donation, so the soaring need for the drug will cause more difficulties for the supply than that of other drugs. IVIG is prepared directly from human plasma, so it is only allowed to be circulated and used after obtaining a quality certificate issued by the National Institute for Testing of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals.
The National Institute for Accreditation of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals on June 23 issued a certificate for 6,000 bottles of ProIVIG imported by Duy Anh Pharmaceutical Trading Company. Pediatric hospitals citywide have access to this newly imported source of IVIG drugs and urgently carry out procedures to procure drugs, ensuring uninterrupted drug supply for the treatment of hand, foot and mouth diseases.
Hand, foot and mouth disease circulates year-round in most provinces and will continue to evolve, so more radical and proactive solutions to IVIG drug supply should be adopted soon. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health needs to conduct concentrated procurement of rare drugs to ensure the supply of drugs for the group of endemic diseases, including dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth and a number of other dangerous and rare diseases.
Ho Chi Minh City needs to have policies to encourage domestic pharmaceutical enterprises to carry out studies and produce Immunoglobulin from locally available plasma supplies through blood donation activities instead of entirely relying on imported drugs. This is also consistent with the development orientation of the pharmaceutical industry in the coming time.
