Pharmacists & retail

GPP is the Vietnamese standard for community-pharmacy operations — covering staffing, premises, equipment, dispensing documentation, prescription audit, and OTC counselling. It applies to every retail pharmacy and drugstore from day-one of operations.

• Consolidated text under Circular 11/2025/TT-BYT (in force 2025-07-01), integrated with the electronic-drug-records mandate.
• Pre-inspection is required before the eligibility certificate is issued.
• Annual self-assessment plus periodic Sở Y tế inspection.
• Loss of GPP triggers eligibility-certificate suspension.

Special-control medicines (TT 18/2026/TT-BYT) add separate registers, double-lock storage, and prescription-retention requirements.

Yes — every pharmacist (dược sĩ) practising in Vietnam needs an individual practising certificate (chứng chỉ hành nghề dược, CCHND), regardless of who holds the pharmacy's eligibility certificate.

• CCHND is issued by the provincial Sở Y tế based on your university qualification and a year of supervised practice.
• Under Law 44/2024 the CCHND is increasingly tied to electronic verification — pharmacy software pulls the active CCHND when you log in.
• You may not be the legally-responsible pharmacist (người chịu trách nhiệm chuyên môn) at multiple locations simultaneously, but you can practise as a staff pharmacist.
• CCHND does not expire on a fixed date, but is subject to revocation on professional misconduct.

Special-control medicines (thuốc kiểm soát đặc biệt) include narcotic, psychotropic, precursor, addictive, and toxic-substance products. Decree 163/2025/NĐ-CP set the classification; Circular 18/2026/TT-BYT (full effect 2026-07-16) implements it.

• Separate purchasing register, dispensing register, destruction register.
• Double-lock cabinet; daily reconciliation against the register.
• Prescriptions retained 5 years (longer than the 1-year baseline).
• Monthly reports to the provincial Sở Y tế in the prescribed form.

TT 18/2026 also reclassified Etomidate and Carisoprodol as psychotropic, effective from the signature date (2026-06-01) — affecting community pharmacies stocking either.

Yes, under Law 44/2024/QH15 (in force 2025-07-01), online OTC retail is formally permitted under defined conditions:

• The selling entity must already hold a valid GPP-certified pharmacy eligibility certificate at a physical address.
• Only OTC drugs (thuốc không kê đơn) — prescription medicines, special-control drugs, and antibiotics for systemic infection remain offline-only.
• Identity verification of the buyer and dispensing record retention apply the same way as in-store.
• Cold-chain products require courier verification of temperature integrity.

Misleading health claims and direct ads for prescription medicines remain prohibited.

There is no single nationwide ceiling, but the GPP framework and product-specific circulars set practical limits:

• OTC drugs (thuốc không kê đơn) may be sold in commercial pack sizes; the pharmacist is expected to counsel on quantity vs. need.
• Antibiotics — even those historically sold over the counter — now require a prescription under the Ministry of Health antimicrobial-stewardship push.
• Schedule drugs (special control, psychotropic, narcotic) must always have a prescription, and the maximum dispense quantity per prescription is set per substance.
• For chronic-disease repeat refills, electronic prescriptions can authorise multi-month supply, but each dispense is recorded separately.

Retention periods depend on the drug class and record type:

• Routine OTC and prescription dispensing records: 1 year minimum.
• Antibiotic dispensing records: 2 years (Ministry of Health antimicrobial stewardship).
• Special-control drug records (narcotic, psychotropic, precursor): 5 years per TT 18/2026/TT-BYT.
• Electronic-record systems must back up data and survive software upgrades.
• During an inspection, the Sở Y tế can demand the entire retention window — keep records searchable by date, customer, and product.

Move to the electronic-record mandate under Circular 11/2025/TT-BYT well ahead of enforcement; backups must be tamper-evident.