Bad medicine for six pharma firms

Work is increasing to get the pharmaceutical sector into better health
Photo: Le Toan

  The Government Office last week trumpeted a report on results of inspections over the Ministry of Health’s state management on pharmacy.

  “Some pharmaceutical firms have violated regulations on trading, export and import of materials. They have sold finished medicines containing habit-forming substances, psychotropic substances and precursor substances,” the report said.

  These firms include German-Vietnamese joint venture Stada-Vietnam, and locally-owned Imexpharm, Tipharco, Ho Chi Minh City Medical Export Import, Minh Hai Pharmaceutical and Ha Tay Pharmaceutical.

Specifically, Stada-Vietnam was found to have in 2011 sold 210 bottles of Partamol siro (PSE 30mg) and 240 boxes of Partamol-Codein (Codein phosphat 30mg) with each box containing 100 tablets to Papua New Guinea without any permission from the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Stada-Vietnam is a $20 million joint venture established in September 2012 between locally-owned pharmaceutical firm M.S.T and German-backed Stada Arzneimittel. 

Meanwhile, Imexpharm was found to have in between July 2010 and August 2011 sold 4,079,800 habit-forming tablets of Nucofed (Codein base 10mg, Pseudoephedrin HCl 30mg) to those not needing treatment with this medicine. In between January 2008 to October 2011, Imexpharm sold seven types of medicines having habit-forming substances, psychotropic substances and precursor substances to Cambodia without MoH’s permission and customs procedures. As for Tipharco, this firm was discovered to have sold 414,900 psychotropic tablets named Phenobarbital 100mg to those not needing treatment with this medicine during July 2010-August 2011.

The Government Office also found that Ho Chi Minh City Medical Export Import JSC sold to and Minh Hai Pharmaceutical bought from the former 500 kilogrammes of Pseudoephedrine material, which is a type of precursor substance, without MoH’s permission. Minh Hai Pharmaceutical was also found to sell 501,100 psychotropic tablets named Armicort (Phenobarbital 8mg, Ephedrine HCl 25mg) to those not needing this medicine for treatment from January to June 2011.

The authorized agency also saw that this firm had signals of using unlawful invoices for its selling 5,067,000 Artenfed tablets (PSE 60mg) to a pharmaceutical firm in northern Lao Cai province. Also, Minh Hai Pharmaceutical was accused of having sold 1,497,520 Gardenal tablets (Phenobarbital 100 mg) to those not needing this type of medicine for treatment.

The Government Office also said that the MoH had for long time completed inspections over operational activities of Hong Kong’s Zuellig Pharma Vietnam-ZPV under Document 1185/VPCP-QHQT dated November 3, 2011. “However no inspection results and report have been made so far. This means that the MoH has failed to obey the government’s order,” said the report.