The Drug Administration of Vietnam, under the Ministry of Health, launched a program on December 20 in Hanoi, to encourage people to use more Vietnamese made medicines.
Truong Quoc Cuong, Head of the Drug Administration of Vietnam, said the domestic drug industry has made rapid progress with 121 GMP-standardized pharmaceutical factories. Local drug products are being exported to several countries in the world and many foreign pharmaceutical corporations have built their factories in the country to make drugs for export.
However, not many people use local made drugs. At an average, Vietnamese people spend about VND600,000 on buying drugs every year; however, half that amount is used to buy foreign-made medicines. Both medical workers and patients prefer using foreign-made drugs and as a result, hospital costs become a burden for patients.
The program will select and classify 100 good quality local made drugs to the public every year.
