HCM City has launched a pharmaceutical price stabilisation programme for the 2020-2021 period. File photo from phunuvietnam.vn

HCM CITY -- The People’s Committee of HCM City has begun its pharmaceutical price stabilisation programme for the 2020-2021 period to meet the need for essential drugs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It includes 19 groups of drugs to treat common and chronic diseases as well as drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19, produced by the country’s factories meeting World Health Organisation’s good manufacturing practices.

The prices of the drugs are 5-10 per cent lower than the prices of similar products in the market. 

Pharmaceutical enterprises and drugstores meeting Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) standards are encouraged to take part in the programme.

As many as 4,270 drugstores took part in the pharmaceutical price stabilisation programme in the 2019-20 period, according to the city's Department of Health

The figure accounts for nearly 75 per cent of the total number of retail drugstores in the city.

Eleven pharmaceutical companies also joined the programme.

The turnover from these drugs totalled nearly VNĐ61 billion (US$2.6 million) between April last year and early March. — VNS