By 2045, the growth of industrial production in the pharmaceutical industry will reach 8-11%/year. To realize this goal, many opinions say that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Raw materials only meet a small part
Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long signed Decision 270/QD-TTg approving the "Pharmaceutical Industry Development Program to 2030, with a vision to 2045" (Program).
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| The pharmaceutical industry is capable of participating deeply in the global value chain, having a spillover effect on other economic sectors. Photo: HT |
Specifically, by 2030, strive to meet 20% of raw material demand for drug production; meet 50% of raw material demand for functional food and pharmaceutical cosmetics production domestically. The export growth rate of some natural pharmaceutical products (pharmaceuticals, quantitative extracts, essential oils rich in active ingredients) is more than 10%/year.
By 2045, Vietnam's pharmaceutical industry will become a high-tech, modern, competitive industry and participate in the global pharmaceutical value chain. The growth rate of pharmaceutical industry production will reach 8-11%/year.
With the above goal, Mr. Hoang Quoc Lam - Deputy Director of the Department of Chemicals (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry has had quite good growth in production and business in recent years. Many domestic pharmaceutical enterprises have achieved GMP-WHO standards, some of which have achieved EU-GMP or Japan-GMP standards. "However, most domestic pharmaceutical enterprises produce common and popular drugs on the market such as some antibiotics, pain relievers, fever reducers, health protection foods, etc. while specialized and special drugs that require modern preparation techniques have not been produced yet" - Mr. Hoang Quoc Lam frankly stated the current situation.
According to UNIDO classification, Vietnam's pharmaceutical industry is classified at level 3/5, meaning "domestic pharmaceutical industry produces most finished products from imported raw materials", according to WHO classification, Vietnam's pharmaceutical industry is only at level 3 (including 4 levels) "has domestic pharmaceutical industry; produces generic drugs; can export some pharmaceuticals".
Currently, pharmaceutical production only meets about 70% of the demand for drugs by quantity and 50% by value. However, mainly imported raw materials are used, while domestic raw materials only meet a small part of the demand for drug production (about 5.2% for modern drugs and about 20% for oriental drugs).
“Because the pharmaceutical industry is not yet developed and the industry's products cannot compete with products from countries in the region such as China and India, most of the raw materials used to prepare medicines and produce other health protection products must be imported,” the Department of Chemicals informed.
Creating new, innovative products…makes it difficult for domestic businesses
In fact, businesses believe that most domestic pharmaceutical suppliers lack the resources to exploit the domestic market. Therefore, providing pharmaceutical products to meet people's needs is very difficult to achieve without breakthrough developments.
Domestic pharmaceutical companies currently focus mainly on producing low-value, low-priced generic drugs with poor competitiveness, leading to a situation where they have to compete with imported generic drugs and compete within the industry. Therefore, there exists a situation of overlapping production and competition for market segments.
Besides, the story of creating new products, breakthrough products… makes it difficult for domestic enterprises. Even the industry of creating active ingredients in Vietnam is still not too developed.
Mr. Ngo Anh Ngoc - CEO of PharmaDi Joint Stock Company frankly pointed out that consumers still choose imported goods even though they are more expensive than Vietnamese goods. This has made the Vietnamese pharmaceutical market still a "playground" for foreign pharmaceutical companies.
Therefore, it is necessary to create an open legal environment with incentive mechanisms so that businesses can take advantage of the potential in the domestic market for mutual development.
A lot of work needs to be done to make the goal a reality.
Faced with this situation, the Department of Chemicals proposed: “The Government, ministries and sectors need to develop a research program to perfect the system of synchronous mechanisms and policies. At the same time, apply preferential mechanisms and high-level support for a number of activities such as research and development, transfer of new technologies, core technologies, technologies for manufacturing high-value pharmaceutical products and a number of other breakthrough activities to develop the pharmaceutical industry.”
In addition, to develop sustainably and improve competitiveness, Vietnam needs synchronous solutions, from investing in R&D, training human resources, improving quality management, to encouraging foreign investment and enhancing international cooperation.
"Only with drastic and synchronous steps can the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry reach out to the international market, serving the pharmaceutical industry to best meet the health care needs of the people," a representative of the Department of Chemicals pointed out.
Regarding policy solutions, the Department of Chemicals also proposed to introduce products using domestically produced pharmaceutical ingredients and the list of health insurance drugs. Prioritize bidding for drugs in hospitals for drugs using domestically produced raw materials. At the same time, create favorable conditions for the order and procedures for drug registration for drugs using domestically produced raw materials. Combine state budget investment with mobilizing other resources for the development of the pharmaceutical industry.
From an expert perspective, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Van Truyen, former Deputy Minister of Health, said that in order to realize strategic goals, there needs to be more breakthrough mechanisms for the development of the pharmaceutical industry, and the pharmaceutical industry needs to be restructured so that domestic production can develop steadily and reduce dependence on external sources.
Sharing the same view, Ms. Do Thanh Ha, Deputy Head of the Chemical Industry Development Department (Department of Chemicals) said that it is necessary to promote the process of building the pharmaceutical industry on the basis of forming and sustainably developing pharmaceutical enterprises of all economic sectors; have specific mechanisms and policies with special incentives for investment in pharmaceutical production, especially pharmaceutical substances, to encourage enterprises to invest in developing the pharmaceutical industry.
At the same time, speed up the procedures for transferring and innovating technology, machinery and equipment lines; apply advanced and modern technology to produce high-quality pharmaceutical products that are competitive in the market.
| The Pharmaceutical Industry Development Program to 2030, with a vision to 2045, aims to gradually increase the rate of production and use of domestic pharmaceutical ingredients and promote the export of pharmaceutical products. At the same time, it contributes to the implementation of the objectives of the Vietnam Chemical Industry Development Strategy, the Program for Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry, Domestically Produced Medicinal Materials and the National Strategy for Development of the Vietnamese Pharmaceutical Industry to 2030 and with a vision to 2045, which have been approved by the Prime Minister. |
Source: https://congthuong.vn/lam-gi-de-cong-nghiep-nganh-hoa-duoc-dat-8-11-nam-2045-376185.html
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