Viet Nam has made great progress in bio-technology and this can help improve its healthcare system, the Sai Gon Hi-Tech Park has said in a report.
The report, by Dr Thai Nguyen, chief scientist at the park's Biotech Division, points out Viet Nam has achieved critical mass required for international standard and multi-disciplinary bio-technology research and development.

The country also has the required qualities and resources to elevate bio-technology into a major industry.

It is now vital for Vietnamese scientists to research into medical problems using sophisticated bio-tech tools for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy.

They include various epidemic and endemic forms of flu that break out periodically, the effects of environmental changes and chemicals like dioxin and other contaminants on the increased incidence of cancer, birth defects, and immune disorders.

They also include the increased incidence of diabetics, obesity, heart diseases, viral resistance to drug treatments in case of diseases like TB, malaria, hepatitis, and HIV.

The first bio-tech experiments done in Viet Nam was on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the mid of 1990s by a group of researchers at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

PCR is a technique by which a small fragment of DNA can be rapidly duplicated many times, and it is used to quickly detect pathogens with high sensitivity.

PCR applications are now very popular in urban research centres and hospitals around Viet Nam.

The bio-technology studies expanded with proteomics research at the Institute of Biotechnology and the Military Medical University in Ha Noi.

In Viet Nam, there is a b desire to catch up and a thirst for broader use of bio-technology, with several new research centres for enhancing bio-tech products for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, and pathogen-resistant infections already being in operation or in the planning stage.

The HCM City-based NanoGen Inc, which has been in existence for almost 10 years, makes monoclonal antibodies for cancer treatment for the local and international markets.

Monoclonal antibodies are seen as magic bullets because they target cancer cells but hospitals in the country can rarely provide this treatment because of the high costs involved.

Vabiotech Corp of Ha Noi has successfully used the reverse genetic approach for making recombinant [formed by recombination of DNA] vaccines for Hepatitis B, which increases the risk of liver cancer, and Japanese encephalitis.

Stem-cell research is going on at various places though, admittedly, most of it is still at the basic level.

At the Natural Science University in HCM City, Dr. Ngoc K. Phan has done pioneering work in setting up various embryo and adult stem-cell banks for conducting clinical studies and eventually treating patients.

Last year the Viet Nam Gene Therapy Centre was established at Ha Noi's Bach Mai Hospital, the country's pre-eminent public medical facility.

Nano-technology has begun to be applied in bio-tech areas like gene isolation and purification.

Many bio-tech centres receive assistance from international centres and collaborate with them. These include the US-based University of California's Asia-International Molecular Biology Network and Global Health Sciences.

A team from the UK's Oxford University established the Oxford Clinical Research Unit in association with the Tropical Diseases Hospital in HCM City to investigate major medical issues using pathological samples from local populations.

The value of the work is seen in the more than 100 papers being published in international journals during the last decade.

But the report also identifies the tasks that need to be done to develop bio-technology in Viet Nam – like increasing international collaborations and partnerships and developing b information-based research – and the challenges facing the industry like lack of funds for developing infrastructure.

From Vietnamnews