The most significant impact on Vietnam's US$1.2bn pharmaceutical market in 2009 was the full adoption of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The guidelines state that foreign pharmaceutical companies have the right to directly import and distribute their products in Vietnam. However, only those firms with a local representative office are allowed to distribute following self-importation. Nevertheless, because of Vietnam's geographic size and unique business culture, we expect most drugmakers from abroad to recruit a local distributor. Through to 2013, the report is forecasting pharmaceutical sales in Vietnam to post an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.4%.
During Q309, an affordable cholera vaccine developed in Vietnam was launched in India. Shancol is administered orally, and was developed by the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute (IVI). The vaccine will be manufactured by India's Shantha Biotechnics, and will cost less than US$1 – significantly less than the only other internationally approved cholera vaccine, Crucell/SBL Vaccine's Dukoral, which retails for GBP30 (US$44) in the UK. This development underlined the capabilities of Vietnam's small but impressive R&D sector.
Multinationals are increasingly seeing the potential offered by Vietnam. In March 2009, Germany-based Siemens announced that it has sold its medical diagnostic systems to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, in a bid to enter the healthcare sector of the country. The company said that its medical diagnostic systems include Biograph 64 PET/CT and Cyclotron machines, which are used in aiding the detection of cancer, neuron disorders, heart disease and other diseases.
The retail pharmacy sector is set for far-reaching reforms. Pham Khanh Phong Lan, deputy director of the health department of Ho Chi Minh City said in March 2009 that approximately half of the existing 3,300- plus pharmacies in the city are likely to shut by 2011, on account of their failure to meet the government's GPP standards.
As with many countries in the region, tropical diseases are endemic in Vietnam. In March 2009, Nguyen Manh Hung, the Chairman of the National Project for Prevention of Malaria in Vietnam, said that the number of malaria patients in the country had decreased, but the ratios of malaria carriers and death victims of malaria remained high. The number of malaria patients in 2008 decreased by 1,000 compared with 2007, but the number of deaths due to the disease increased by 25% in the same period.
Approximately 30mn people live in areas where malaria exists.
