HANOI, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam needs to pay more attention to clinical pharmacy and improve the effectiveness of drug use in health facilities towards a suitable and affordable supply of drugs for patients, local media reported on Friday.
Currently, over 90 percent of raw materials for domestic drug production in the Southeast Asian country are still imported, local newspaper Vietnam News reported.
There is a lack of human resources in the field of clinical pharmacy, quality management, research and development of new drugs, it said.
Vietnam should have more investment in people, facilities, mechanisms and policies to develop the pharmaceutical sector, the newspaper reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha.
Le Quang Cuong, former deputy minister of health, said the pharmaceutical sector needs to focus on researching, testing and producing specialized and rare drugs as the demand for essential and common therapeutic drugs has been guaranteed.
The total domestic pharmaceutical market value last year was estimated at 6.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Drug production in Vietnam has been expanded with 228 factories meeting World Health Organisation-Good Manufacturing Practices (WHO-GMP) standards, including 18 production lines that have met European-Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP) standards. ■