Strengthening inspection, examination and handling of violations in pharmaceutical business activities

According to the Drug Administration of Vietnam, to strengthen the management of pharmaceutical business activities through e-commerce, on November 21, 2024, the National Assembly issued Law No. 44/2024/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy, the Law takes effect from July 1, 2025.

Accordingly, Law No. 44/2024/QH15 clearly stipulates prohibited acts, including adding provisions on retail sales via e-commerce for the following drugs: Prescription drugs, except for medical isolation when there is an infectious disease in group A that has been declared an epidemic according to the provisions of the law on prevention and control of infectious diseases; drugs subject to special control; drugs on the List of drugs restricted from retail sale.

The supplements also specify the wholesale of specially controlled drugs by e-commerce and the trading of drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients by e-commerce through means other than e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce sales applications, and electronic information pages (also known as e-commerce websites) that have online ordering functions.

People buy medicine at medical facilities in Hanoi.

In addition, the amendments and supplements also clarify the business of pharmaceuticals at places other than the business location stated on the certificate of eligibility for pharmaceutical business or permitted by a competent state agency, except for buying and selling activities by e-commerce.

To ensure safety for users and at the same time provide enough quality drugs for people according to the law, the Drug Administration of Vietnam has requested the Departments of Health of provinces and centrally run cities to coordinate in implementing the following contents:

Firstly, direct and coordinate with relevant units to strengthen inspection, examination and supervision of pharmaceutical business establishments in the area to maintain proper implementation of professional regulations; ensure strict compliance with legal regulations in pharmaceutical business activities.

In particular, strengthen the inspection and supervision of drug retail establishments in the area to detect and prevent drug trading at places other than the business locations stated on the certificate of eligibility for drug trading or permitted by competent state agencies (currently online trading); purchase and sale of prescription drugs and drugs subject to special control not in accordance with regulations and strictly handle violations (if any).

Second, increase information and dissemination to pharmaceutical businesses in the area of ​​legal regulations on the pharmaceutical sector (including new regulations in Law No. 44/2024/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy effective from July 1, 2025), the principles of "Good Practice" standards, which require pharmaceutical businesses to focus on checking and controlling the origin of drugs, drug quality, and expiry date of drugs before putting them into circulation on the market, strengthen the work of checking legal documents of suppliers and customers, only buy and sell drugs to pharmaceutical businesses with certificates of eligibility to do pharmaceutical business with appropriate business scope, update documents on regulations on buying and selling prescription drugs and special control drugs.

The Drug Administration also requested that management agencies coordinate with local media agencies to propagate and provide information to people to only buy drugs from legal pharmaceutical businesses, drugs with full information, clear origin; avoid buying drugs based on inaccurate information on social networking sites; increase information to people to be "smart consumers", need to raise vigilance to join hands with state management agencies in the fight against counterfeit goods, poor quality goods, and commercial fraud.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/tang-cuong-cong-tac-thanh-tra-kiem-tra-xu-ly-vi-pham-trong-hoat-dong-kinh-doanh-duoc-post874198.html