Increase sanctions, increase inspection to prevent poor quality drugs

Thanh Hoa Provincial Police seized many types of counterfeit drugs.

* REPORTER: Can you point out some reasons why fake and poor quality drugs are still circulating and tend to become more complicated?

* Mr. TA MANH HUNG: One of the reasons why illegally produced drugs can still circulate on the market is because the sanctions for violations are not deterrent enough. For example, the value of a box of counterfeit drugs discovered can be only a few hundred thousand dong, so the administrative penalty according to regulations is only from 1 to several million dong.

Mr. Ta Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Drug Administration

Therefore, along with increasing sanctions against violators, there needs to be high determination and close coordination with law enforcement agencies to track down, trace and destroy production sites. This is very important. A typical case in Thanh Hoa, based on the report on counterfeit drugs from the Thanh Hoa Department of Health to the Ministry of Health , the Ministry directed the Thanh Hoa Department of Health to coordinate with the market management agency and local authorities to promptly transfer files of cases with signs of criminality to the police for investigation. Thanh Hoa Provincial Police have also established a special project to combat and destroy the production and trade of counterfeit drugs for treatment and disease prevention as in the past.

* To minimize the situation of fake and poor quality drugs, what solutions does the Ministry of Health have?

* Immediately after the counterfeit drug incident in Thanh Hoa, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch No. 41 and Official Dispatch No. 45 on thoroughly handling the acts of trading in counterfeit drugs, health protection foods and fake milk. Currently, the Ministry of Health is urgently developing a plan and synchronously implementing solutions to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the fight against counterfeit drugs, poor quality drugs and drugs of unknown origin.

Mr. Ta Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Drug Administration, talks about solutions to combat counterfeit drugs.

These solutions include: reviewing legal regulations in the direction of increasing sanctions to ensure deterrence; enhancing the effectiveness of inspection and supervision work at all levels of management; building a database of drugs with circulation registration certificates, connecting pharmaceutical businesses to retrieve information on the origin and source of drugs; promoting communication activities to raise people's awareness in choosing to buy drugs at legal pharmaceutical businesses. At the same time, the Ministry will strengthen coordination with relevant ministries and branches to handle cases of illegal drug trading and sales online.

* In the immediate future, what specific actions will the Ministry of Health take?

* We will strengthen the management, inspection and examination of drug supply establishments, requiring establishments to have full invoices and documents proving the origin of drugs before importing and selling them to people; strengthen the inspection and supervision of pharmaceutical production and trading establishments, especially on e-commerce platforms and social networks; encourage businesses to apply traceability technology and anti-counterfeit stamps, such as QR codes, to manage goods, reduce loss and prevent counterfeit drugs. At the same time, we require the nationwide testing system, including central drug testing institutes and provincial and municipal testing centers, to increase drug sampling on the market, focusing on taking focused and key samples, both periodically and suddenly.

NGUYEN QUOC

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/tang-che-tai-tang-kiem-tra-de-ngan-chan-thuoc-kem-chat-luong-post794179.html