The city Department of Health today said that the municipal People's Committee has just issued the Decision No. 657/QD-UBND to approve the Project ‘Developing Ho Chi Minh City's pharmaceutical industry to 2030 with a vision to 2045. This will be an important start for the city to soon become the first largest medical and pharmaceutical industrial park in the country.
According to Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong, Vietnam is facing a shortage of drugs due to a disruption in the supply of finished drugs and raw materials for drug production under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and political instability due to conflicts between several countries around the world. Therefore, ensuring pharmaceutical security has become a top priority in the healthcare sector, with more focus on supply chain management and improving domestic pharmaceutical production capacity.
Ho Chi Minh City has certain potential in developing the pharmaceutical industry as it is a trade center in the southern region which is convenient for transporting and supplying drugs to other areas.
Moreover, the southern largest city is home to research facilities, training institutions and production establishments. Pharmaceutical production, business, import and export activities in the city always have high growth and account for a large proportion of the country's pharmaceutical economic structure, said a leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health.
The municipal People's Committee-approved project ‘Developing Ho Chi Minh City's pharmaceutical industry to 2030 with a vision to 2045’ is considered a strategic action program to meet the integration requirements of economic and scientific and technical development.
At the same time, the project implementation follows the Party and State's policies on improving people's health and strengthening State management in the field of medicine and pharmacy in the city.
The project ‘Developing Ho Chi Minh City's pharmaceutical industry to 2030 with a vision to 2045’ includes two general goals. Firstly, the city will focus on transferring technology to produce drugs and medical equipment, especially prioritizing the production of medical equipment using high-tech technologies, producing vaccines, biological products, new drugs, and invented drugs to meet domestic disease prevention and treatment needs.
The city thus produces medicines which gradually replace imported drugs and Vietnamese-made drugs will be exported to other countries at a competitive price. Secondly, the city will form and develop a specialized medical and pharmaceutical industrial park in Ho Chi Minh City.
Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong said that the development of specialized medical and pharmaceutical industrial parks is a breakthrough policy of the city. The medical and pharmaceutical industrial park will have the following main functions comprising of center for research, development and innovation in the field of medicine and pharmacy, large establishments manufacturing and trading specialized medical and pharmaceutical products and supporting products in the high-tech segment and trading center for specialized medical and pharmaceutical products and ancillary products.
In recent times, the city has had working sessions with the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health and the Working Group of the Program Steering Committee 376 to agree and propose to submit to the Prime Minister for approval of the project of Medical and pharmaceutical industrial parks which will be listed as one of the key projects for investment appeal according to the Decision No. 376/QD-TTg.
It is expected that the specialized medical and pharmaceutical industrial park will have its infrastructure completed and put into operation in 2030 with special support policies from the Government and Ho Chi Minh City to create a favorable environment for businesses to sell their products in the market as soon as possible, said Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said that the city's pharmaceutical industry development project will be located at a specialized medical and pharmaceutical industrial park in Le Minh Xuan 2 Industrial Park with an area of 338 hectares in Le Minh Xuan Commune of Binh Chanh outlying district.
