Prime Highlights:

• Vietnam’s pharmaceutical industry is growing steadily, with exports reaching $312 million in 2025, placing the country fourth in Southeast Asia.
• Regulatory reforms and digital transformation are boosting efficiency, cutting administrative procedures by 40% and speeding up drug approvals.

Key Facts:

• Vietnam’s pharmaceutical market is projected to grow to $8 billion by 2026, maintaining an annual growth of 6–8%.
• The country now has 67 companies exporting pharmaceuticals, with foreign-invested firms accounting for 75% of total export value.

Background:

Vietnam’s pharmaceutical industry is showing steady growth, with exports reaching $312 million in 2025, placing the country fourth in Southeast Asia, according to the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health. These expansions are an indication of an increase in its production capacity and an increase in local and foreign market demand.

The country’s pharmaceutical market has been growing at 6–8% each year. Its total value, which stood at about $2.7 billion in 2015, is expected to reach around $8 billion by 2026, making Vietnam one of Asia’s fast-growing drug markets. Currently, 67 companies export pharmaceuticals and drug ingredients, mainly to other Asian countries, as well as to Europe and Japan.

Foreign-invested companies account for a large share of exports, contributing about 75% of total export value, or nearly $230 million. The rest of 82 million is comprised of domestic firms. Vietnam has also established an extensive pharmaceutical distribution system with 245 facilities dealing with exportation, importation, and storage services, nearly 8,000 wholesale distributors, and over 95,600 retail outlets within the country

These retail outlets include pharmacies, drug counters, and medicine cabinets at commune-level health stations, helping ensure that medicines are available to people nationwide.

Domestic manufacturing capacity has also improved significantly. Vietnam now has 243 drug manufacturing plants meeting WHO Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, compared with 158 plants in 2015.

Vietnamese manufacturers are now capable of producing all 13 essential drug groups classified by the World Health Organization and supplying 11 of the 12 vaccines used in the national expanded immunization program. Capabilities have also expanded into certain biological materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and excipients.

Regulatory changes have helped the industry grow. In 2025, the Ministry of Health cut procedures in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics from 124 to 75, reducing the burden by nearly 40%. The ministry also offers 47 online services, making drug approvals faster, more efficient, and transparent.

Collectively, these trends highlight the increasing value of Vietnam as a reliable supplier of health services in the region and its desire to establish a more competitive and modern pharmaceutical sector.