The first day of the Appraisal Mission for the Vietnamese-Thai-German Trilateral Cooperation “Access to high quality and affordable medicines” began on the 19th of April at Hanoi University of Pharmacy (HUP). The planning workshop aims to identify the needs of the HUP and develop a concept note. After gaining background information from various presentations, the participants developed an objective tree according to each component. The workshop took 3 days in total with expertise from professors from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chulalongkorn University.

The second day of the appraisal mission followed through the results of the first day. Representatives from HUP, TICA, and GIZ together came up with specific objectives, outputs, and main activities of the project to develop a concept note. In the afternoon, the Thai delegates visited the National Institute of Drug Quality Control (NIDQC) and Bach Mai Hospital which is one of the largest in Vietnam. Discussions with the two institutions explored the possibility of collaborating with HUP to build the capacity of pharmaceutical personnel and students in order to serve the needs of high quality personnel in Vietnam.

On the morning of the third and final day of the appraisal mission, the Thai and German delegates had the opportunity to visit Ha Noi CPC1 Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (CPC1HN). CPC1HN is a company that produces medicines and food supplements. It is the largest company in Hanoi. Afterwards, the delegates also visited the laboratory of HUP before proceeding with the concluding session in the afternoon.

At the end of the workshop, HUP will develop a final concept note by reviewing the draft with other related agencies in order to improve production of high quality and affordable medicines in Vietnam.

The final concept note will be considered by the Thai-German Trilateral Steering Commitee (TSC) which meets every quarter. If the project gets approved, a planning workshop will be organised in the next step.