Strengthen inspection and strictly handle fake drugs and functional foods

At Binh Thuan bridge, there was the participation of specialist doctor II Nguyen Ba Tong - Deputy Director of the Department of Health and representatives of related departments and branches.

Accordingly, in 2024, the national testing system will collect more than 43,000 drug samples, detecting 228 samples that do not meet quality standards and 23 samples suspected of being fake drugs and medicinal materials. However, violations related to the production and trade of fake drugs have not been thoroughly handled and still occur in some places. The Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry currently has more than 238 factories that meet GMP-WHO standards and about 20,000 drugs with valid registration numbers. The legal framework in the fight against fake drugs is clearly stipulated in the Pharmacy Law, the Penal Code and related documents.

Regarding food safety, the Ministry of Health assessed that the production and trade of fake and poor quality food is still complicated and on the rise. Counterfeit products are mainly powdered milk, health food, spices, etc. with sophisticated methods that are difficult to distinguish from genuine products. Many products are consumed through social networks and e-commerce platforms, causing difficulties in management. In the period of 2020-2024, authorities handled hundreds of violations related to fake food. Many of these cases showed signs of criminality. The main reasons are high profits, sophisticated counterfeiting methods, lack of consumer awareness, and weak monitoring systems.

In Binh Thuan, the provincial health sector has not recorded any cases of counterfeit drugs, milk or functional foods. Specialized inspections focus on checking against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods before, during and after Tet. At the same time, they check compliance with legal regulations on pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, functional foods, nutritional products for children and medical equipment.

At the conference, experts and representatives of sectors and localities discussed limitations and difficulties in practice. And proposed solutions to improve management efficiency, promptly prevent and strictly handle the production and trade of fake drugs and food, and protect the rights and health of the people.

In his speech, Deputy Minister Do Xuan Tuyen emphasized that the work of preventing and combating smuggling and trade fraud, especially in the field of food and pharmaceuticals, needs to continue to be promoted. He requested localities to strictly implement current legal regulations, strengthen inspections, and strictly handle violations. He also stepped up propaganda to raise people's awareness in using safe drugs and food.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/tang-cuong-kiem-tra-xu-ly-nghiem-thuoc-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-gia-129999.html