Purifying the pharmaceutical and cosmetic market

In May alone, the Drug Administration ( Ministry of Health ) has revoked nearly 300 declaration forms for imported cosmetics, mainly famous brands. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has also just revoked 70 declaration forms for cosmetics, traditional medicines, herbal medicines, chemical medicines, functional foods... that were "magically" transformed into medical devices by production and business units to circumvent the law and enjoy incentives.

If in 2024, the Drug Administration only revoked about 500 imported cosmetic registration numbers at the voluntary request of businesses and more than 100 others due to violations or errors in the records, then in the first 5 months of this year, the number of businesses requesting to withdraw registration numbers has increased almost as much as in the whole year of 2024.

The fact that businesses are rushing to withdraw their declarations makes public opinion skeptical about avoiding responsibility, avoiding post-audit or concealing violations when the whole country is organizing post-sales inspections, checks, fighting smuggling, trade fraud, production and trading of counterfeit and poor-quality goods in the group of goods such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

However, according to the leader of the Ministry of Health , regardless of the reason, if cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are found to have signs of violation, the enterprise will still be handled according to regulations and withdrawing the acceptance number does not mean avoiding legal responsibility. On the contrary, enterprises that show signs of taking advantage of the withdrawal of numbers to avoid post-inspection will be closely monitored and subject to increased inspection and supervision to effectively control the situation of counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical market.

Dozens of invalid drug registration certificates along with hundreds of revoked cosmetic certificates in recent times are not only a warning bell about product quality but also raise many questions about the management capacity of the authorities, the responsibility of businesses and the trust of consumers. Many types of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals have been discovered to have ingredients that do not match the declared documents, falsely declared information, and even continued to circulate after the declaration certificate expired...

Although regulations on cosmetic declaration and drug registration have been issued for many years, the legal system still reveals loopholes when the application review process is still formal and lacks actual verification. Many applications are licensed based only on documents, without independent assessment or on-site inspection, creating conditions for businesses to easily "circumvent the law" without fear of being detected.

More worryingly, most of the violations are discovered after the products have been released to the market, or even widely consumed. This shows that post-inspection work is still too weak, while there is a lack of regular inspection and monitoring measures, so the public's current concern is how many violating products have not been discovered.

Obviously, it is impossible to completely blame the management agency if the businesses themselves deliberately violate. When business ethics are ignored, and short-term profits become the ultimate goal, improper production, false advertising, and evasion of inspection are unacceptable behaviors. The consequences are felt by consumers, because they do not have enough tools to distinguish between safe products and poor quality goods.

And when an incident occurs, it is difficult to exchange, refund, and pursue responsibility, leading to double damage to health and finance. Above all, the incident erodes trust in the state management system and even in brands that were once considered reputable.

It is undeniable that recalling declaration forms is necessary, even an important first step to prevent counterfeit and poor quality products from circulating on the market. However, it is not enough to stop at detecting violations before recalling products. What society needs now is a strict monitoring system from the root, with a serious review process, a transparent post-inspection mechanism and uncompromising handling of violations.

To make the cosmetics and pharmaceutical market truly clean and safe, it is necessary not only to issue legal documents, but also to raise the sense of responsibility of managers, business ethics and the right to know of consumers. Do not force people to be smart consumers, to know how to distinguish fake and poor quality goods... when this task belongs to the authorities.

THANH AN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/thanh-loc-thi-truong-duoc-pham-my-pham-post798164.html