Find the right loopholes, conduct a thorough review and determine to prevent counterfeit goods.

From mid-April to early May, the Prime Minister issued three consecutive dispatches (Transfer No. 41/CD-TTg; Transfer No. 40/CD-TTg; Transfer No. 55/CD-TTg) on ​​handling the case of manufacturing and trading in counterfeit medicines and health food; manufacturing and distributing fake milk and requested ministries, branches and localities to strengthen coordination and strictly handle organizations and individuals involved in manufacturing and trading in counterfeit medicines, fake milk and fake health food.

The Ministry of Health held a national online meeting on strengthening the fight against fake drugs, cosmetics and health protection foods - Photo: VGP/TH

  8 "loopholes" that allow counterfeit goods to thrive

Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Health has just held a conference online national conference on strengthening the fight against counterfeit drugs, cosmetics and health protection foods. The conference was attended by relevant ministries, branches and representatives of 63 provinces and cities across the country.

After listening to opinions from representatives of ministries, branches and localities, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen reviewed 8 prominent issues related to institutions and implementation in the work of preventing counterfeit goods.

Firstly, current regulations only stop at safety control, not quality control.

Monday, The mechanism for enterprises to self-declare products is posing a big challenge. Enterprises self-declare and then immediately sell the products to the market; declare products in one location, register in another location, so when the management agencies conduct post-inspection, they encounter difficulties.

Third, current regulations do not have a mechanism to recall declared violating products; currently, recalls are only based on the voluntary spirit of the enterprise.

Fourth, it is too easy to establish and register a business nowadays. When an incident occurs, the authorities come to inspect but the business is not found.

Fifth, post-inspection supervision and inspection work is still limited.

Friday, advertising with incorrect content, difficult to manage because the server is overseas...

Seventh, people's awareness, including business owners (putting poor quality products on the market...) and consumers (buying products of unknown origin, cheap prices...).

Eighth, the application of information technology in the management of both pharmaceuticals and food is still limited. "If establishments register to declare products through an online system connected to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the National Portal, management will be very simple," said the Deputy Minister.

From the perspective of localities, Mr. Le Minh Hai, Deputy Director of the Department of Food Safety of Ho Chi Minh City, also admitted that handling violations is currently difficult when production and business enterprises are related to many different provinces and cities.

In addition, the detection of violations largely depends on feedback from the people. Even when violations are detected, the handling process is often delayed because it requires coordination with many units, beyond the authority of the Department.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen summarizes 8 prominent issues from localities and ministries in the fight against counterfeit goods - Photo: VGP/TH

  Amending the decree to tighten counterfeit goods

Regarding the above 8 issues, the leader of the Ministry of Health - the standing agency of the Central Interdisciplinary Steering Committee on food safety emphasized that it is necessary to review and immediately amend and supplement regulations suitable to reality.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health requested ministries, branches and localities to strictly implement Directive 17 of 2022 of the Central Party Secretariat on food safety, Directive 17 of 2018 of the Prime Minister and Decrees 40, 41, 55 of 2025 of the Prime Minister; directive documents of the standing agency of the Central Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on food safety, documents of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

For the health sector, the Ministry will urgently complete the amendment of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Food Safety Law, in the direction of overcoming the above 8 outstanding issues.

"The Ministry will have to submit this revised decree to the Government before May 15 to unify the specific quality management of functional foods, such as setting specific qualitative and quantitative criteria, and quality management before safety management," Deputy Minister Do Xuan Tuyen emphasized.

Regarding the food group, the Deputy Minister said that in the coming time, there will be regulations to tighten management of product registration and self-declaration, a mechanism to revoke licenses, and temporarily suspend the acceptance of administrative procedures when businesses have not corrected violations. After checking and re-evaluating, the business will be re-registered.

In particular, we will increase surprise post-inspections to detect and strictly handle violations. Currently, we only conduct periodic inspections and notify businesses in advance. In addition, we will establish mandatory common quality standards for functional foods.

At the same time, businesses are required to announce and self-announce quality and inspection methods at competent authorities; strengthen communication so that people and businesses understand correctly, use correctly and do correctly; propose to punish both businesses that register for advertising, media that advertise incorrectly and advertising subjects; increase participation in independent evaluation and respect people's critical opinions.

In particular, the Ministry will propose to increase the level of administrative penalties to be sufficiently deterrent.

Police force destroys large-scale fake pharmaceutical production and trafficking ring

  Strengthening effective coordination against counterfeiting

Regarding medicine, the Deputy Minister emphasized that medicine plays an important role in disease prevention and treatment. If you are sick and do not have medicine, you cannot be cured. If you buy fake medicine or medicine that does not meet quality standards, it will seriously affect people's health and lives.

Therefore, the Deputy Minister requested that localities immediately review and recall the announced counterfeit drugs. These counterfeit drugs are not only from the recently announced investigation agency but also include counterfeit drugs that the Drug Administration previously announced and requested to be recalled nationwide.

Strengthen inspection and examination activities in the area, especially wholesale and retail establishments, paying attention to the origin of drugs to detect counterfeit drugs. When counterfeit drugs are detected, they must be resolute and ready to transfer to the investigating agency and must trace the origin of production to strictly punish violations.

Promote communication of knowledge on how to identify genuine and fake drugs, promote prescription drug purchasing activities, encourage people to inform management agencies about fake drugs...

Strengthen inspection and supervision of advertising and e-commerce business activities. The Deputy Minister also requested 63 provinces and cities to launch a peak period from now until the end of May to fight against fake drugs and fake functional foods, and report the results to the Ministry of Health before June 10. The Ministry will summarize and report to the Government before June 15.

From the market management perspective, Mr. Tran Huu Linh, Director of the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that the Ministry will closely direct local Market Management Sub-Departments to strengthen inspection and supervision of circulation and distribution of products, especially at small retail channels, unofficial agents, e-commerce platforms and social networks, where there are many potential risks of counterfeit goods, goods of unknown origin, and poor quality goods.

Authorities inspect warehouse of fake drug evidence

Along with field inspections, the Department will continue to collect feedback from consumers, and coordinate with the health sector (for food quality, standards and safety) and the agriculture sector (for raw milk and agricultural products) to establish effective solutions to prevent the circulation of fake milk and milk that does not meet quality standards on the market.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is also conducting a comprehensive review and assessment of the management of goods circulation for dairy products, focusing on identifying loopholes after the distribution stage. From there, it proposes to perfect the inter-sectoral coordination mechanism, enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency in inspecting and handling acts of commercial fraud, false advertising and food safety violations.

National review

In early May, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Official Dispatch No. 55/CD-TTg, requesting ministries, branches and localities to strengthen coordination and strictly handle organizations and individuals involved in the production and trade of fake medicines, fake milk and fake health protection foods. In particular, the Ministry of Public Security was requested to speed up the investigation of discovered cases.

The Ministry of Health has increased inspections of compliance with legal regulations on pharmaceuticals and food safety, while paying attention to strengthening state management of cosmetics to prevent violations...

The Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of National Defense coordinate with relevant ministries, agencies, and localities to strengthen the activities of the National Steering Committee 389; step up inspection and supervision of circulation and distribution activities at retail channels, agents, e-commerce platforms, etc., promptly detect, prevent, and strictly handle the production and trade of counterfeit goods, etc.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinates with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies to review and handle violations in advertising activities in the press, on the internet, on social networking platforms, strengthen inspection activities on compliance with legal regulations on advertising, especially advertising of goods on medicines, milk and health protection foods, promptly prevent and strictly handle violations.

For localities, the Prime Minister requested the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to direct competent agencies to organize peak periods of general review and inspection of compliance with laws on pharmaceuticals and food safety for establishments trading in medicines and health protection foods in the area and strictly handle violations.

Inspect and handle the advertising and trading of medicines and health protection foods on the internet; promptly review and recall fake medicines, fake milk and fake health protection foods that have been discovered in the area, to promptly prevent and minimize harm to people.

Following the Prime Minister's direction, many localities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City... have organized a peak period of general inspection of establishments selling medicine, milk, and health protection foods in the area.

Ho Chi Minh City has inspected more than 4,600 pharmacies - accounting for about 60% of the total number of pharmacies in the area. Authorities discovered a single case involving fake Bold Milk Colostrum for musculoskeletal problems.

Previously, the results of the review of all public and non-public medical examination and treatment facilities in the area showed that they did not trade or use fake milk on the premises.

To "tighten" counterfeit goods, the role of state management agencies is indispensable. The timely and complete issuance of legal documents, along with the provision of effective tools to strictly control products circulating on the market, is a key factor in preventing counterfeit and poor quality goods. Inspection, examination and handling of violations also need to be carried out strictly and regularly.

For each citizen, it is also necessary to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge to be able to choose products to use wisely. Finding information about products, their origin, ingredients, labels, as well as updating warnings from authorities, will help consumers make informed decisions, protecting the health of themselves and their families.

Thuy Ha

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/tim-dung-cho-hong-tong-ra-soat-va-quyet-ngan-chan-hang-gia-102250508210413957.htm