Saturday, December 27, 2008

Application of pharmacy standards slackens

From VietNamNet:
Many drugstores at large hospitals have not yet applied the Good Pharmacy Practices (GPP), let alone private pharmacies, although the deadline is only one week away, said HCMC health officials.

The Ministry of Health last year introduced the GPP standard and required all drugstores at hospitals nationwide to brace for the standard before January 1 next year. The standard is aimed at helping State agencies ensure the quality of drugs, better manage drug manufacturing and distribution, protect the people’s health as well as prepare the market for foreign drug distributors who will be allowed to enter the market early next year.

Under the ministry’s requirements, all drugstores must operate in modern facilities, only sell drugs with known origin, employ qualified pharmacists and provide drug consultations. However, even in HCMC where the pharmaceutical market is more developed, the standard has not been attended to by drugstores, said Pham Khanh Phong Lan, deputy director of HCMC’s Department of Health.

She told the Daily that the GPP implementation in hospitals would fall behind the ministry’s deadline given the current progress.

“Up to this month, 52 hospital-based drugstores in HCMC have been completing procedures to apply the GPP plus about 10 district-level hospitals,” she said. Of this figure, only 30 drugstores have successfully deployed the GPP standard. ...more

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