An online database of approved drugs, pharmaceutical producers and distributors, as well as licensed pharmacists in Vietnam is now available on a website launched on Monday by the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV).

The database, available at drugbank.vn, contains information on more than 13,300 types of drugs and nearly 41,000 pharmaceutical producers, distributors and pharmacists, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong said at the launch in Hanoi.

The drug bank enables the public to easily look up drugs’ information, including their quality and prices, as well as finding drug stores that meet standards set in the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP), Cuong said.

It also helps state management agencies keep a close watch on the history of drug development and operations of pharmaceutical businesses in Vietnam, and plays an important role in managing drug prices and controlling quality, distribution, and circulation of pharmaceuticals, the official said.

Cuong added it is expected that the database will raise public awareness of safe and effective drug use.

Digitizing a national pharmaceutical database is a landmark step for Vietnam, said DAV head Vo Quoc Tuan.

DAV officials and a local IT solutions company spent three years since 2016 working on the project, which was funded by the private sector.

Together with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada, and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization of India, DAV is one of the few national state management agencies to develop an online database that provides a tool to look up information about the country’s pharmaceutical industry, Tuan noted.

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