Vietnam’s Ministry of Health (MOH) is working to promptly establish three to six centres for rare drug products nationwide in accordance with the Prime Minister’s direction.
Such centres will reserve 15-20 drug products for rare medical conditions, said Le Viet Dung, Deputy Director of the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV).
The DAV is also working with the WHO to connect the storage of rare and limited-supply drugs with regional countries as well as the WHO’s storage facilities.
Currently the legal frameworks for rare drugs have been fully issued and the DAV is asking hospitals nationwide to build plans on demand for such drugs.
Concerning cases of botulinum poisoning in Ho Chi Minh City, the MOH immediately contacted domestic and foreign drug suppliers as well as the WHO to secure the antitoxin in the earliest time possible.
The WHO then announced that there were only six tubes remaining at its storage facility in Switzerland, which had been transported to Vietnam on May 24 and then delivered to hospitals to treat the poisoned patients.
