More policies to attract investment in the pharmaceutical industry

Accordingly, the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy supplements regulations on special investment support according to the law for research activities, technology transfer, investment in the production of pharmaceutical substances, new drugs, original branded drugs, specialized drugs, drugs applying high technology in the production of vaccines, biological products, rare drugs, drugs for preventing and combating social diseases, herbal drugs and traditional drugs produced from Vietnamese medicinal materials with national brands.

At the same time, attract investment in scientific research activities on developing pharmaceutical technology and biotechnology to produce new drugs; research and production of new drugs from domestic endemic medicinal resources; conservation of rare and endemic medicinal gene sources in the country; research activities on creating new varieties from domestic and transplanted medicinal gene sources with high economic value.

The draft also specifies investment incentives for the production of generic drugs, pharmaceutical ingredients such as excipients and capsule shells; packaging in direct contact with drugs; construction of biological testing facilities, assessment of bioavailability and bioequivalence of drugs; and facilities for clinical trials of drugs.

On the other hand, increase the preferential rate of corporate income tax, increase the rate of deduction and time of use of the Science and Technology Development Fund, and import tax on pharmaceutical ingredients that Vietnam cannot produce.

The new regulation will facilitate the procedures for registering the circulation of new drugs, original brand-name drugs, specialized drugs, biological products, high-tech drugs, drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients produced on the basis of national science and technology tasks that have been accepted and biotech drugs with technology transfer produced in Vietnam, generic drugs of new drugs whose patent protection is about to expire; traditional drugs produced on high-tech production lines and from medicinal materials that meet GACP-WHO standards; licensing the import of rare drugs, vaccines that have been pre-approved by the World Health Organization, and drugs that have been clinically tested in Vietnam.

The draft also provides preferential output policies (drug purchase, payment by health insurance, price maintenance and price reduction according to the roadmap...) for newly researched drugs and generic drugs to encourage the transfer of technology to produce generic drugs in Vietnam, increasing supply to meet people's drug needs.

The Ministry of Health said that the policies related to the pharmaceutical sector being implemented under the 2016 Pharmaceutical Law have marked an important step forward in perfecting the pharmaceutical legal system in Vietnam, basically in line with the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the trend of international integration. The 2016 Pharmaceutical Law has contributed to creating an equal and open investment and business environment, creating maximum convenience for businesses, basically ensuring adequate supply of quality drugs at reasonable prices.

Domestically produced drugs are increasingly diverse in design and type to meet people's prevention and treatment needs.

After more than 7 years of implementing the 2016 Pharmacy Law, the pharmaceutical industry has achieved many important achievements. Legal regulations on pharmaceuticals have created a legal basis for the development of the pharmaceutical industry in a public and transparent direction, demonstrating progress and integration with countries in the region and the world in regulating principles and standards of Good Practice in pharmaceutical activities, from production, export, import, testing, wholesale, retail... According to the classification scale of the World Health Organization, the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry currently reaches level 3.5/5.

However, the implementation process shows that some policies for pharmaceutical industry development have not created a breakthrough, such as incentives for pharmaceutical industry development have not been specified, are difficult to implement or are no longer suitable for the socio-economic development trend in the new situation... In particular, the demand for high-quality drugs in Vietnam is increasing, and some new diseases are emerging.

To overcome the above limitations and shortcomings, the development of a draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy to promote the development of the pharmaceutical industry, prioritize research, receive technology transfer and produce innovative drugs, high-tech drugs, biological drugs/drug ingredients, standardized medicinal herbs, and raw materials from available medicinal herbs in the country is necessary and suitable for practice.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/them-chinh-sach-thu-hut-du-tu-vao-cong-nghiep-duoc-post815534.html