Sao Thai Duong JSC aims to bring Vietnamese medicinal herbs to the world

Sao Thai Duong receiving the National Quality Gold Award 2019-2020

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) on April 25 held a ceremony to award the National Quality Award, the Global Performance Excellence Award – (GPEA) 2019-2020.

The National Quality Award is given by the prime minister Minister to enterprises with outstanding achievements in improving the quality of their products and services, as well as competitiveness. This award takes into account the operational efficiency as well as integration with regional and world economies of each enterprise.

In 2020, the PM signed a decision to award the National Quality Awards to a total of 55 enterprises. Among these companies, 19 business were awarded the National Quality Gold Award. 36 other enterprises received the National Quality Award.

Sao Thai Duong JSC is one of 19 enterprises that won the National Quality Gold Award. “This year is the first time Sao Thai Duong participated in the contest. It is an honor and a pride for us to have received the Gold Award – the highest award of the contest,” said Nguyen Thi Huong Lien, deputy general director of Sao Thai Duong JSC.

Sao Thai Duong was established in 2000 by two co-founders, pharmacist Nguyen Huu Thang and Master of Pharmacology Nguyen Thi Huong Lien. Achieving the National Quality Gold Award is a result of strenuous efforts by Sao Thai Duong throughout 20 years of growth and development.

Sao Thai Duong has built up a modern infrastructure with a main office based in Hanoi. The Sao Thai Duong building in Hanoi has a unique museum to display precious medicinal herbs from across Vietnam. In addition to the office in Hanoi, Sao Thai Duong has a branch in Ho Chi Minh city and three factories in Ha Nam. These three factories were built with a total scale of nearly 3 hectares and are fully equipped with production lines for medicines, cosmetics, food supplements, bio-products, and medical equipment.

Sao Thai Duong is the first company in Vietnam to meet GMP ASEAN standards for cosmetics production. It is a pioneer enterprise to invest in a system of factories meeting GMP pharmaceutical standards, factories achieving GMP cosmetisc, ISO 14000 standard, HALAL certification, and FDA certification for export to the US market.

In recent years, Sao Thai Duong has been a forerunner in the export of scientific and technological products of Vietnam to strict markets such as the US, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and the UK.

Constantly investing in the expansion of production scale, Sao Thai Duong soon focused on its development as an enterprise associated with scientific research. The company is striving to be the most significant scientific and tech-enhanced enterprise in traditional medicine in Vietnam. It has a strategy to attract talents, employees, and staff members to meet the needs of the development and expansion of the company. Sao Thai Duong has approximately 1,200 staff members, as well as more than 80 masters and university pharmacists, over 400 pharmacists with high school and pharmacy college certificates, and about 200 engineers/bachelors.

Annually, the company spends 10 per cent of its revenue on research and development. It has carried out hundreds of studies at the company by itself, holding 13 patents and valuable solutions. Among them, two inventions won a Bronze medal at the International Patent Exhibition in Taiwan in 2019; one invention was awarded at the 2018 invention competition organised by the International Intellectual Property Organization in conjunction with the MoST of Vietnam.

In the past 10 years, the company has been investing in more than 70 pre-clinical research projects on experimental animals, 21 clinical trials at all levels at seven hospitals in Vietnam, one project at the national programme on high-tech infrastructure development research, and developed new drugs from medicinal herbs.

These researches mainly focus on developing new drugs from herbal sources and traditional Vietnamese medicine principles combined with modern pharmaceutical techniques.

In 2020, when COVID-19 broke out, Sao Thai Duong quickly realised the challenges and opportunities presented. The company quickly cooperated in transferring technology, conducting clinical research, producing two sets of medical equipment for the diagnosis and detection of coronavirus called "One step RT-PCR Covid kit THAI DUONG" and "Covid-19 RT LAMP Covid- 19 kit THAI DUONG". These kits are provided to the Vietnamese government, contributing to effective anti-epidemic prevention. Over 50,000 RT-PCR test kits and tens of thousands of COVID-19 anti-epidemic products worth over VND20 billion ($870,570) were promptly given to anti-epidemic frontline units of Vietnam.

The company aims to develop a source of organic medicinal herbs in line with US and European standards. It has invested in a 30-hectare area to grow medicinal plants in Son La under a closed process. The company expects to expand its size to approximately 300ha in 2025. By installing modern technological production lines and taking raw materials from international-standard organic medicinal farms, Sao Thai Duong is one of a few company that is able to produce products that meet the GMP standard.

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