First drug and medicine databank launched in Vietnam

Information of medicines as well as their producers and distributers is now available on the website drugbank.vn. Source: VNA

At the launching ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong affirmed that as an archive of over 13,300 kinds of drugs, nearly 41,000 drug producers, distributors and pharmacists with practising certificates, the databank makes it easier for organisations, businesses, doctors and local people to look up drugs and their quality and prices, and drugstores nationwide meeting standards set by the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP).

Besides helping state management agencies keep a close watch on the history of the drug development and pharmaceutical businesses’ operation, the website is important to controlling pharmaceuticals quality, distribution and circulation, as well as managing drug prices in an efficient manner.

Cuong also stressed the drug databank raises public awareness on the safe and effective use of drug.

According to DAV head Vo Quoc Tuan, the administration has left a landmark not only in the Vietnam but also the world in digitalising pharmaceuticals database.

The launch of the databank after three years of preparation is a significant milestone in the management of medicine in particular and the pharmaceutical sector as a whole. Together with the US’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Health Canada, and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation of India, the DAV is one of the few national state management agencies to develop a database that provides a tool to look up information about the pharmaceutical industry./.

VNF/VNA