Traphaco: Sustainable development via a green value chain

Speaking at the 2023 Sustainable Development Conference organised by VIR on November 16, Dao Thuy Ha, deputy general director of Traphaco said, "The company's sustainable development journey originates from its mission of making medicine to save people. In addition to developing the business and creating economic efficiency, Traphaco pays attention to its employees, the community, and the preservation of a green ecosystem."

The three pillars of sustainable development at Traphaco are realised through a green value chain that begins with input materials that are standardised according to Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) international standards, a modern production factory that meets Good Manufacturing Practice - World Health Organization (GMP-WHO) standards, and an extensive distribution system to bring good quality, effective, and safe medicinal products to the people.

Traphaco became a pioneer in the oriental medicine revolution when it launched the GreenPlan sustainable medicinal development programme. This initiative created an overarching economic model called the 4-houses linkage model, encompassing the state, farmers, scientists, and enterprises to take advantage of the collective resources, capabilities, and knowledge.

The scheme helps the company remain autonomous and ensures the quantity and quality of input materials while also creating jobs, increasing income, and improving knowledge and thinking. At the same time, it encourages Vietnamese people to prioritise using locally produced products and medicines.

To date, Traphaco has five medicinal herbs whose growing and harvesting areas meet GACP standards, as well as dozens more that are controlled according to GACP. At the same time, the company has ensured the quality and effectiveness of key oriental medicine products, such as Boganic, Hoat Huyet Duong Nhi, Cebraton, and more, allowing it to dominate the market share in Vietnam for many years and become a favoured choice for consumers and doctors.

"Based on GACP medicinal herbs and the essence of Vietnamese oriental medicine, we mix medicines to better satisfy the high-end customer group. The first product, namely the liver tonic Boganic Premium, has been debuted to the public," Ha said.

She added that after launching the product nationwide in 2023, its sales exceeded the initial expectation by 1.6-fold, which is a good signal that shows the potential for growing the market.

For the high-quality modern medicine segment, accompanied by foreign strategic partners, such as Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Westland - Pure Nutrition, Traphaco boldly invested in bioequivalence research, announcing seven products, including Methorphan, Cebraton, Tottri, and Antot. The sales of these innovative products have continuously increased, rising sevenfold between 2021 and 2022. This year, the company is expecting on-year growth of 1.23-fold.

According to Traphaco's deputy general director, its products are made based on the demand of the market, developing offerings as people ask for new, more effective, and more convenient solutions to their healthcare.

Traphaco sustainable development journey has been characterised by investing heavily in research and development and continuously launching new products every year.

Ha highlighted that the company has worked with experts from the Vietnam Institute of Medicinal Materials to successfully isolate and patent a new active ingredient, TRA-GO1, which is an extract of a bitter herb. The cooperation has also improved the testing standards for raw materials for oriental medicine production.

This year also marks a breakthrough in Traphaco's testing activities through investment in analytical equipment, including a modern solution that uses fibre optic UV technology to assess solubility, which is a unique solution in Vietnam.

With a certificate from the Ministry of Health dated April 10, Traphaco became the first pharmaceutical manufacturing enterprise in Vietnam to have a testing laboratory for research and development that meets GLP-WHO standards.

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