Pharmaceutical industry attracts foreign investors

Pharmaceutical industry attracts foreign investors

09/01/2008 -- 2:35 PM

Ha Noi (VNA) – Right after the country joined the World Trade Organisation, the pharmaceutical industry became a magnet to draw in foreign investment with 58 new foreign businesses in 2007 alone.

The Health Ministry reported that it has, by the end of October 2007, licensed 370 foreign businesses engaged in the making of medicines and drug materials with Chinese, Indian and Pakistani entrepreneurs making up the majority.

“With a population of more than 85 million people and an abundant source of tropical herbal plants, Viet Nam is a potential market for foreign pharmaceutical businesses to explore,” an official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said.

Bui Quang Trung, Deputy Head of MPI’s Foreign Investment Department affirmed the Government’s policy to attract foreign investors into the pharmaceutical industry.

He said the Government has given incentives to those involved in the making of biotechnology-used medicines, materials for antibiotics, drugs to cure social diseases, vaccines, bio-products, and herbal medicines.

There are 46 foreign-invested projects with a total registered capital of 112 million USD engaged in producing pharmaceutical products in the country, Trung said, adding that these facilities have not yet produced a large quantity of high-quality products to meet the people’s demands.

The Vietnamese people’s spending on medicines jumped from an average 0.3 USD per person in 1999 to 8.6 USD in 2004 and 12.69 USD in 2007.

Currently, locally-made drugs meet around 50 percent of the demands, leaving the haft to imports.

In 2007, the country imported 777 million USD in drugs and medicinal materials, of which medicinal materials accounted for 25 percent.

The pharmaceutical industry has set a target of meeting 60 percent of the local market’s demands by 2010 and 70 percent by 2015.-Enditem

(VNAgency)