Tag: drugstores

  • Vietnam cracks down on drugstores selling without prescriptions

    Vietnam cracks down on drugstores selling without prescriptions

    The Ministry of Health has ordered that all drugstores should be connected to the national medicine database via the Internet by Monday, a move aimed at preventing the sales of drugs without prescription.

    But in Ho Chi Minh City, which has the highest number of pharmacies in the country at over 6,000, only 61 percent have linked up, according to the city Department of Health. In Hanoi, 90 percent of its over 4,600 drugstores have done so.

    Many pharmacy owners said they do not have a computer or Internet. Tran Thi Nhi Ha, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Health, said the regulation requires pharmacies to invest in infrastructure and this takes time.

    Tang Chi Thuong, her HCMC counterpart, said inspectors would soon carry out checks to ensure compliance. “Licenses will be taken away from pharmacies that continue to disobey.”

    Most pharmacies in Vietnam sell drugs without prescriptions. In fact, around 88 percent of all antibiotics sold in urban areas are without prescriptions while the rate is 91 percent in the countryside, the health ministry said.

    The World Health Organization has listed Vietnam among the list of countries with the highest rate of antibiotic-resistant infections, with 33 percent of all patients suffering from them.

  • China Jo-Jo surges forward on on-line progress

    China Jo-Jo surges forward on on-line progress

    China Jo-Jo Drugstores, the China-based retail and wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical and well being care merchandise via its personal on-line and retail pharmacies, has reported a fourth quarter income increase of 30.1 per cent and a $three.34 million revenue – overturning a $1 million loss for a similar interval a yr earlier.

    For the complete yr, the corporate elevated income by 16.2 per cent: its on-line pharmacy gross sales soared 96.eight per cent and retail gross sales by 21.7 per cent. Gross revenue elevated $6.7 million, or by 117.2 per cent and gross margin doubled. China Jo-Jo says its on-line success was as a result of a collection of on-line advertising efforts, increasing its presence on eCommerce platforms, like Taobao, JD.com and Amazon.com. The corporate additionally signed a service settlement with Alipay (China) to include Alipay’s on-line cost service into its e-stores.

    Lei Liu, chairman and CEO, stated: “We’re thrilled to shut out fiscal yr 2015 with a stellar fourth quarter efficiency.  Our official on-line pharmacy, skilled greater than 3 times income progress yr over yr because of our strategic partnership with China’s main Pharmacy Profit Administration (PBM) supplier and insurance coverage corporations. After virtually two years of restructure of which our administration has shifted focuses and assets to larger progress and excessive margin market phase, we consider FY 2015 was a serious turning level for China Jo-Jo.

    “We not solely achieved chance after the final two years’ main losses, but in addition regained the belief of our loyal clients and shareholders.

    “As we speed up our progress into 2016 and past, we consider our eCommerce gross sales will at some point surpass the gross sales from our conventional offline pharmacy enterprise. By leveraging our on-line presence, China Jo-Jo goals to turn out to be a nationally recognised pharmacy chain and a number one participant within the on-line drugstore marketspace in China,” Lei Liu stated.