Clarifying new directions for pharmaceutical industry development

Regarding the pharmaceutical industry development policy, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that the 2016 Pharmacy Law also has policies to enhance self-sufficiency in essential drugs for disease prevention and treatment. Due to limited resources, the goal of that period was to focus on producing generic drugs. And the domestic pharmaceutical industry has developed strongly. If in 2016 the whole country only had 167 pharmaceutical production facilities, by 2023 it had increased to 238 facilities; the value of domestic drug production accounts for nearly 50% of the value of drugs used... Domestically produced drugs basically meet the demand for essential drugs and common drugs for disease prevention and treatment.

The head of the health sector believes that, with the changing disease model and to promptly solve practical problems, focusing on the development of the pharmaceutical industry is a very essential need. In addition, the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy also amends and supplements a number of regulations to attract investment and further promote research and development in the production of pharmaceutical ingredients; research, receive and transfer technology for the production of high-tech drugs, biotech drugs, and special treatment specialties, etc.

The draft supplements regulations on special investment support according to the provisions of law for research activities, technology transfer, investment in the production of pharmaceutical substances, new drugs, original brand-name drugs, specialized drugs, drugs applying high technology in the production of vaccines, biological products, rare drugs, drugs for prevention and control of social diseases, herbal drugs and traditional drugs produced from Vietnamese herbal sources with national brands; scientific research activities on the development of pharmaceutical technology, biotechnology to produce new drugs; research and production of new drugs from domestic endemic herbal sources; activities to preserve rare and endemic herbal gene sources in the country, research activities to create new varieties from domestic herbal gene sources and transplant them, with high economic value.

Drug production at Imexpharm Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company.

In addition, continue to specify investment incentives for the production of generic drugs, pharmaceutical ingredients such as excipients, capsule shells; packaging in direct contact with drugs; build biological testing facilities, evaluate bioavailability, bioequivalence of drugs; and drug clinical trial facilities.

Facilitate the procedures for registration of new drugs, generic drugs, specialized drugs, biological products, high-tech drugs, drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients produced on the basis of national science and technology tasks that have been accepted and biotech drugs with technology transfer produced in Vietnam, generic drugs of new drugs whose patent protection is about to expire; traditional drugs produced on high-tech production lines and from medicinal materials that meet GACP-WHO standards; grant licenses to import rare drugs and vaccines that have been pre-approved by the World Health Organization, and drugs that have been clinically tested in Vietnam.

The draft also provides preferential output policies (drug purchase, payment by health insurance, price maintenance and price reduction according to the roadmap...) for newly researched drugs and generic drugs to encourage the transfer of technology to produce generic drugs in Vietnam, increasing supply to meet people's drug needs.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/lam-ro-them-nhung-dinh-huong-moi-cho-phat-trien-cong-nghiep-duoc-post816234.html