Prevent the production and trade of fake drugs and fake foods

On the morning of August 21, at the National Assembly House, the Committee on Culture and Society coordinated with the Committee on Science , Technology and Environment, the Committee on Petitions and Supervision to organize a session to explain the implementation of policies and laws on preventing and combating counterfeit drugs and fake foods.

Attending and giving a speech, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh highly appreciated the initiative to organize the Explanation Session; stating that "this is a very hot topic, hot from every family, every citizen," the Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly pointed out that the harmful effects of fake drugs and fake food on people's health and the economy are very large, to the point of being considered a danger. The most dangerous of these is the direct, long-term harm to the health, even the lives, of users.

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly said that the Party and State always identify the work of ensuring food safety and preventing and combating counterfeit drugs and fake foods as important tasks closely linked to the goal of protecting people's health and ensuring national health security.

Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW of the 12th Central Executive Committee set out the task of "Strengthening the prevention and combat of smuggling, production and trading of fake and poor-quality drugs and functional foods. Strictly controlling functional foods and goods that pose a risk of harming health."

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly emphasized that the Party's viewpoints and policies and the State's policies and laws clearly demonstrate the spirit of determination to fight and eliminate this danger.

Since the beginning of the year, the Government has made efforts to focus on implementing a peak period of fighting with the direction of the Prime Minister to "declare an uncompromising war on fake drugs and fake food to protect the health, lives, rights, and legitimate interests of the people and businesses; protect the security and health safety of the people, contributing to serving the country's rapid and sustainable development.

In the spirit of sharing responsibility, the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly hopes that both the agency that explains and the agency requesting the explanation will realistically and objectively assess the current situation of production, trading and circulation of counterfeit drugs and fake foods; assess the implementation of policies and laws on prevention and control of counterfeit drugs and fake foods in conjunction with the functions, tasks and responsibilities of ministries, branches and localities; clarify difficulties, limitations and causes. Thereby, propose and recommend amendments and improvements to policies and laws, have timely solutions to remove obstacles, practically improve the effectiveness of drug and food quality management; prevent and stop the production, trading, circulation and advertising of counterfeit drugs and fake foods.

Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh said that recently, consecutive cases of production and trade of fake drugs and fake food in Vietnam have been discovered and handled by authorities, and have been condemned by public opinion.

Counterfeit drugs and fake foods not only directly affect the health and lives of consumers but also cause economic losses, erode social trust, reduce business reputation, and pose a potential risk to social order and safety.

According to the Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society, the explanation session was held to assess the situation of production, trading and circulation of fake drugs and fake foods; propose and recommend solutions to combat fake drugs and fake foods to push back this problem.

Reporting at the explanation session, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said that the production and circulation of fake drugs not only appears in underdeveloped countries, but also in developing countries such as the US and Europe.

Every year, Vietnam collects 38,000 drug samples at facilities; the results show that the rate of fake and substandard drugs has decreased sharply from 10% (in 1990-1991) to below 2% in recent years.

"Fake drugs have not been detected in medical facilities, but mainly through retail and e-commerce channels," the Deputy Minister of Health affirmed.

According to the World Health Organization, the rate of substandard and counterfeit drugs in Vietnam is low compared to the world average. However, recently, there have been cases of counterfeit drug production and trading detected and destroyed by authorities, typically fake antibiotic production and trading lines in Hanoi, Can Tho, Ben Tre (August 2024) and fake medicine and health food chains in many localities.

Regarding the cause, the Deputy Minister of Health said that the demand for medicine for medical examination and treatment of the people has increased, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic; the profit in the production and trading of fake medicine is high.

E-commerce and social networks (Zalo, Facebook, Youtube...) are the main channels for consuming fake drugs, taking advantage of consumers' psychology of wanting to buy cheap drugs and self-treat.

Meanwhile, the health sector’s staff for anti-counterfeit drug work is quite thin at both the central and local levels; although local testing centers have received investment, most of them have not met the requirements. Some localities consider anti-counterfeit drug work to be the responsibility of the health sector.

Deputy Minister Do Xuan Tuyen suggested that it is necessary to consider the prevention and control of fake food and fake medicine as a relentless political task; to strengthen supreme and specialized supervision on this content.../.

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/ngan-chan-hanh-vi-san-xuat-kinh-doanh-thuoc-gia-thuc-pham-gia-post1056992.vnp