At the online and in-person meeting with ministries, branches and localities on the issue of fake drugs, cosmetics and functional foods on May 7, Mr. Nguyen Hung Long, Deputy Director of the Department of Food Safety (ATTP), Ministry of Health said that taking advantage of the current open management mechanism, especially in the period of creating favorable conditions for businesses in business registration and product declaration registration, a number of businesses producing and trading functional foods have violated and produced counterfeit goods.
Thanh Hoa Provincial Police dismantled a large counterfeit drug ring, with the subjects illegally earning an estimated 200 billion VND.
According to Mr. Long, most of the current foods are self-declared by enterprises, only 3 groups of products must have their product declarations registered with the competent state agency before being put into circulation on the market, including: Health protection foods, medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets; nutritional products for children up to 36 months old; mixed food additives with new uses, additives.
Violating companies use sophisticated tricks to produce and trade fake food, bypassing authorities and deceiving consumers such as: Labeling products imported from the US or Europe but actually from another country or domestically produced with low quality; using fake labels and packaging similar to famous brands for powdered milk, functional foods, cooking oil, spices; establishing many companies to create a wide distribution network; taking advantage of doctors, celebrities, and the media to falsely advertise the uses of functional foods and powdered milk; using social networks and e-commerce platforms to sell fake goods, which are difficult to control due to anonymity and large scale...
Another hot issue is the production and sale of counterfeit drugs, which bring in super profits. A typical example is the case of Thanh Hoa Police arresting a very large-scale counterfeit drug ring last April.
According to Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, why does Vietnam have legal documents and instructions from the National Steering Committee on Food Safety, from specialized management agencies, from the Ministries of Health, Industry and Trade, Agriculture , etc. but incidents like the recent ones still occur? Many people think that the sanctions for administrative violations under Decree 17/2022/ND-CP are too light. Dr. Do Thai Hoa, Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Department of Health, also admitted that the sanctions are not enough to deter, for example, counterfeit drugs 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, and some acts that are being handled administratively can be considered for criminal prosecution.
Mr. Le Minh Hai, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety, also admitted that handling violations is sometimes difficult because the production and business of enterprises involve many provinces and cities. Handling violations of advertising on the Internet 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 detecting some cases, it is confusing to handle.
Mr. Ta Manh Hung suggested that it is necessary to increase administrative sanctions for the production and trading of counterfeit drugs and drugs of unknown origin (in cases where criminal proceedings are not yet required); apply additional penalties to organizations and individuals who buy and sell drugs without invoices or documents, and trade in counterfeit drugs and drugs of unknown origin. Tighten management of the announcement of medical equipment and functional foods; in cases where advertising or announcement of ingredients containing pharmaceutical substances is discovered that are not in accordance with regulations, it is necessary to promptly recall and handle them.
Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/ngan-chan-thuoc-sua-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-gia-can-tang-manh-che-tai-xu-phat-i767597/
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