Vietnam Acts On Poor-Quality Drug Imports

Vietnam now has an estimated 8,000 private drug stores and 2,300traditional medicine stores, reports the Vietnam Courier. The drug stores sell 8,000 types of western medicines, of which 3,000 are imported and the rest are produced in Vietnam.

The good news for patients is that they can find almost any medicine they need on drug store shelves. Drug stores comprise whole streets in some parts of Vietnam; for example, Van Nieu, Ngoc Khanh, Quoc Tu Giam and Lang streets in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, sell drugs almost exclusively. This helped to increase per capita medicine consumption in Vietnam ninefold during 1990-95.

However, some imported medicines, mostly those of poor quality or past their sell-by date, are concerning the authorities. To combat this problem, the inspectorate of the Hanoi Medical Service last year inspected 3,000 private drug stores, and ordered 165 of them to close down for failing to meet necessary trading standards. Many drug store owners, who are often not qualified pharmacists, are spending large sums on advertising their products in the media.