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

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

Besides helping state management agencies keep a close watch on the history ofthe drug development and pharmaceutical businesses’ operation, the website isimportant 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 andeffective use of drug.

According to DAV head Vo Quoc Tuan, the administration has left a landmark notonly in the Vietnam but also the world in digitalising pharmaceuticals database.

The launch of the databank after three years of preparation is a significantmilestone in the management of medicine in particular and the pharmaceuticalsector as a whole. Together with the US’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA),the Health Canada, and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation ofIndia, the DAV is one of the few national state management agencies to developa database that provides a tool to look up information about the pharmaceuticalindustry.-VNA