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| Representatives of Indian and Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies seek to build business links during the Vietnam-India Business Meeting in Pharmaceutical Industry in HCMC on Thursday - Photo: Tuong Vi |
The businesses that began their five-day Vietnam trip on Wednesday are active in fields such as specific drugs, herbs, functional foods, and cosmetics.
India emerged as the largest pharmaceutical exporter to Vietnam last year, with total revenue amounting to US$193 million, Abhay Thakur, consul general of India in HCMC, said at the Vietnam-India Business Meeting in Pharmaceutical Industry in the city on Thursday.
Vietnam’s pharmaceutical industry has expanded 12% a year on average in 2008-2010. In 2008, domestic drug production value reached US$715 million, and the figure rose to US$858 million last year and is forecast to surge to US$1.2 billion this year.
Vietnam exported US$39.96 million worth of medicines and pharmaceutical material last year, up 20% year-on-year. According to a report by Vietnam’s pharmaceutical authorities, the industry has grown slower and has not created new products and only 52% of the pharmaceutical companies meet Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.
“Most locally made drugs are of ordinary type and they don’t have high value. They just meet half the domestic demand,” said Nguyen The Hung, deputy director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s HCMC branch.
The industry, he noted, imports 90% of material for local drug production, mainly from India and China.
The country has huge demand for pharmaceutical products imports. Last year saw medicine imports top nearly US$1.2 billion, up 27% year-on-year. Spending on pharmaceutical products was US$6 per person in 2001 but surged to US$16.45 in 2008, and it may reach US$25 by 2015.
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