Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has asked the Ministry of Health to formulate a plan for developing and preserving precious herbs and other materials used for medicinal purposes.

He has also asked the ministry to estimate the use of domestic materials in the manufacture of medicines in the country.

The ministry should co-operate with relevant authorities in carrying out these tasks, the Deputy PM said.

At a meeting held in southern Binh Duong Province last week, Nhan said Viet Nam had, in recent years, gone from being an exporter to an importer of medicinal materials.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade says Viet Nam currently imports 90 per cent of medicinal materials to produce allopathic medicine and nearly 85 per cent of the materials for producing traditional medicine.

This was a very serious issue, Nhan said at the meeting.

Many representatives said at the meeting that overexploitation of local medicinal materials without a proper plan to preserve and develop them was to blame for the current situation.

Cao Minh Quang, Deputy Minister of Health, noted that when the Vang Dang plant (coscinium fenestratum), a medicinal plant indigenous to India and Sri Lanka, was found in southern Binh Phuoc Province's Phuoc Long District, residents there rushed to dig them out and sell them.

Now there was no Vang Dang plant left in the province, Quang said.

Nguyen Tien Hung, general director of Viet Nam Medical Products Import-Export Joint Stock Company (Vimedimex), added that the Thong Do plant (Taxus wallichiana) had also suffered the same fate.

The value of the Thong Do plant's medicinal materials was very high. One kilogramme of attar extracted from the plant was worth several million US dollars, Hung was quoted by the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper as saying.

The uncontrolled exploitation of medicinal plants made them difficult to source in order to produce medicines at cheap prices in the country, he added.

No plan

Representatives at the meeting noted that the country was yet to develop a plan to develop areas to grow medicinal raw materials, especially precious herbs.

The Ministry of Health estimates that the country currently has more than 3,000 plants that can be used to produce medicines.

Demand for these materials is very high in Viet Nam, Quang said, adding more than 20,000 tonnes of medicinal material per year was needed for the pharmaceutical industry, while the traditional medicine industry needed 18,452 tonnes.

Bui Ba Bong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Viet Nam has large potential to develop medicinal materials including cinnamon and star anise.

Star anise grown in the northern provinces of Lang Son, Quang Ninh and Bac Kan has fetched handsome profits for local residents, he said.

However, Ngo Chi Dung, chairman of the Viet Nam Chemical Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company, pointed out that the country had made no long-term plan to develop star arise cultivation.

Residents of the northern provinces grow the plant and sell it to the Chinese people, Dung said.

Nguyen Thi Ven, head of the Department of Health in Central Highland Kon Tum Province, said that Viet Nam is yet to develop areas for planting the Ngoc Linh ginseng, which has great economic potential.

Traditional

New Health Ministry standards have put many traditional herbal medicine makers at risk, warns HCM City Health Department deputy director Pham Khanh Phong Lan.

The ministry's Good Manufacturing Practice standards embodied in its Decision No 5/2008/QD-BYT will apply from December 31.

The decision requires makers of traditional herbal medicine to declare the origins of their raw materials and processing methods or have approved manufacturing facilities if they are to stay in business.

But the deputy director, whose department wants the deadline extended to 2015, argues that it will be difficult for traditional medicine makers in both HCM City and throughout the country to meet the standards as most are small-scale or family businesses.

She concedes Good Manufacturing Practice is essential for safety but wants the new regulations made more flexible so as not to push small producers out of the industry.

Their traditional remedies were effective and attracted numerous customers, she said.

"The ministry should set different requirements for small and large-scale producers and increase inspections to prevent the illegal importation of raw materials.

"It should also encourage the use of legal raw materials through the development of their cultivation to help them meet the new standards.

"Most traditional herbal medicine makers agree that meeting the international standard means they will have more opportunities to trade," she said.

"But a lack of capital, equipment and facilities will prevent them from meeting the standard through the building of laboratories or the application of modern technology.

"And most of their raw materials are obtained through unofficial trade."

The new standards were suitable for modern medicine production and large-scale traditional medicine manufacturers like OPC, Trapharco and Bao Long Traditional Medicine Company, she said.

The HCM City Health Department estimates that only a third of 385 traditional medicine stores, including 100 small producers, will be able to meet the new standards.

Viet Nam has about 80 large enterprises and 200 family-owned businesses producing traditional herbal medicines.

National Drug Administration director Truong Quoc Cuong estimates that about 50 per cent of 1,086 registered traditional medicine products will have to be taken off the market at the end of the year for not meeting the new standards.

The World Health Organisation-recognised Good Manufacturing Practice standards is part of a quality system that includes the manufacture and testing of pharmaceutical ingredients, pharmaceutical products, diagnostics, medical advice and food. — VNS

From VietnamNews