Urgently establish at least 3 centers to reserve rare drugs

Faced with the reality of the need for rare drugs in the country, especially in emergency situations where there is no immediate treatment, speaking to the press this morning, May 27, Mr. Le Viet Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Drug Administration (Ministry of Health), said that implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Health has been urgently implementing the establishment of centers for storing rare drugs and drugs with limited supply, with the plan to establish 3-6 centers nationwide.

Khẩn trương lập ít nhất 3 trung tâm dự trữ thuốc hiếm - Ảnh 1. — Rare drug BAT to treat botulinum poisoning cases is being planned for reserve by the Ministry of Health

The number of drugs in the list of reserves is about 15 - 20 types. Botulinum is one of the drugs in this list.

"The Drug Administration is also meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) to study the WHO's storage mechanism and how to connect the storage of rare drugs and drugs with limited supply in Vietnam as well as neighboring countries in the region with WHO's warehouses," Mr. Dung added.

Currently, the legal basis for rare drugs is basically complete, therefore, the Drug Administration has issued documents requesting medical examination and treatment facilities nationwide to be proactive in building demand, forecasting the epidemic situation, as well as estimating the necessary quantity and purchasing drugs to ensure adequate response to treatment needs, especially for rare drugs.

Mr. Dung said that most recently, with the botulinum poisoning cases that just occurred in Ho Chi Minh City, immediately after the Ministry of Health received reports from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health (May 21) and Cho Ray Hospital (May 23), the Ministry of Health immediately contacted domestic and foreign drug suppliers and WHO to have medicine available as soon as possible.

The time to deliver medicine to Vietnam from the time of ordering from foreign manufacturers is at least 14 days. Therefore, to speed up the progress of receiving medicine, the Ministry of Health proactively contacted WHO, requesting support in searching for medicine reserves in the region and globally to be able to meet domestic treatment needs as soon as possible. WHO announced that there were still 6 tubes of medicine in the global warehouse in Switzerland and immediately sent experts to deliver the medicine to Vietnam on the same day. On May 24, the medicine was delivered to Vietnam, and the Ministry of Health immediately transferred it to medical facilities to treat patients.

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