Ministry of Health investigates the cause of many cases of fake milk and medicine

(Dan Tri) - Regarding the issue of fake drugs and functional foods, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen asked: Why does Vietnam have legal documents but incidents like the recent ones still occur?

On the morning of May 7, the Ministry of Health held an online and in-person meeting with ministries, branches and localities on the issue of fake drugs, cosmetics and functional foods.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said that recently, authorities have inspected, investigated and discovered a number of cases related to fake milk, fake functional foods, and fake drugs, seriously affecting people's health.

The Prime Minister also continuously issued three dispatches to strengthen inspection and strictly handle violators related to the production and consumption of fake milk, functional foods, and drugs.

The Ministry of Health is the standing agency of the National Steering Committee on Food Safety, and at the same time performs the state management function of managing functional foods and therapeutic drugs as assigned.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen (Photo: Tran Minh).

The Ministry of Health organized a conference to review and evaluate the current situation of production, trade, circulation and use of functional foods and medicines nationwide. The purpose is to propose solutions so that in the coming time, we can continue to implement more fundamental and systematic solutions to tighten management at each stage, from import, production, circulation to consumption.

According to the Deputy Minister, regarding the institutional framework in the field of drug management, we have the Pharmacy Law (2006), the National Assembly has just passed the revised Pharmacy Law (2024, effective from July 1). The Ministry of Health is also assigned to advise the Government to issue 1 decree and 7 related circulars.

In the field of food safety, we have the Food Safety Law, decrees guiding the law...

The Deputy Minister questioned why Vietnam has legal documents and guidelines from the National Steering Committee on Food Safety, specialized management agencies, the Ministry of Health, Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Agriculture, etc., but incidents like the recent ones still occur. These incidents have been and are being investigated by the investigation agency of the Ministry of Public Security and the police of some provinces to clarify violations according to regulations.

Therefore, the Deputy Minister requested a review to see if any institutional content needs to be revised or supplemented to make documents and institutions more stringent during implementation.

"Regarding implementation, the responsibility lies with the localities. How do the provinces perform their state management functions on drugs and food safety in their localities to allow incidents like the recent ones to occur?

Decentralization and delegation of power have been clearly defined, including the responsibilities of ministries, provincial People's Committees, and the responsibilities of enterprises producing, processing, trading, and circulating drugs and functional foods," Deputy Minister Tuyen said.

Besides, the Deputy Minister also emphasized the awareness of producers, managers and people.

"In the implementation stage, the ministries and branches only provide institutional guidance, the implementation is up to the localities, inspection, examination in the area, propaganda, and mobilization of people... The problem is how to make people feel secure in using the products, at reasonable prices, especially without affecting people's health, with people as the center," said Deputy Minister Tuyen.

Sanctions for violations are not enough of a deterrent

Mr. Ta Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Drug Administration, Ministry of Health, said that legal regulations on quality management and the fight against counterfeit drugs are available, but the sanctions are not deterrent enough and are not suitable for the level of danger and harm caused by violations.

Specifically, according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 192 of the Penal Code, the act of producing and trading in counterfeit goods will only be criminally prosecuted for counterfeit goods (including drugs...) if the counterfeit goods are worth 30 million VND or more.

Mr. Ta Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Drug Administration, Ministry of Health (Photo: Tran Minh).

The penalty for trading in counterfeit goods based on the value of the goods is too low (in cases where the subject is not criminally prosecuted, only administrative sanctions are applied), because the value of the drugs at small retail establishments is very low (mostly under 1 million VND).

For example, he gave an example of a business selling fake Clorocid TW 3 medicine, the value of the medicine bottle is only about 30,000 VND, the business only has 2-3 medicine bottles for sale, if discovered, the business will only be fined from 2 to 6 million VND, the additional penalty is confiscation of the violating goods.

Pharmaceutical business establishments with goods of unknown origin and value under 1 million VND shall only be subject to a warning or a fine from 600,000 VND to 1 million VND; the establishments shall only be forced to return the exhibits or destroy the exhibits in violation (Point c, Clause 1, Article 17).

Mr. Le Minh Hai, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety, also admitted that handling violations is sometimes difficult when the production and business activities of the enterprise are related to many provinces and cities across the country.

In addition, he also pointed out some confusion in handling violations from people's discovery, identifying business entities, and advertising in the electronic environment. Handling this advertising violation is not under the authority of the Department, and when coordinating with competent agencies, the processing time is slow.

Therefore, detection is difficult, but when detected, some cases are confusing to handle.

Dr. Do Thai Hoa, Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Department of Health, also admitted that the sanctions are not strong enough to deter counterfeit drugs, but are being handled according to the value of the goods collected. Therefore, there should be separate regulations and sanctions for counterfeit goods in the medical field because they are directly related to health, some acts that are being handled administratively can be considered for criminal prosecution.

Concluding the conference, Deputy Minister Tuyen requested localities to strictly implement Directive 17 of the Secretariat on food safety, tighten management of registration, self-declaration, increase post-inspection, surprise inspection instead of periodic, planned, and pre-announced inspections...

He also said that it is necessary to increase the level of administrative penalties for violations in the field of functional food management, and impose heavy penalties to have a deterrent effect, otherwise it will be very difficult for state management agencies, and especially for the people, and at the same time, periodic testing is needed.

Regarding drugs, the Deputy Minister suggested that localities continue to implement Directive 17 of the Prime Minister, immediately recall announced counterfeit drugs, step up inspection activities in the area, especially wholesale and retail establishments, and pay attention to the origin to detect counterfeit drugs.

When detecting counterfeit drugs, units need to be decisive and transfer them to the investigation agency, trace the production facility and business contacts to handle, not just stop at making a record.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/bo-y-te-truy-nguyen-nhan-xay-ra-nhieu-vu-sua-thuoc-gia-20250507121332442.htm