Vietnam Drug Price Increase

Vietnam's General Statistics Office reports that retail prices ofpharmaceuticals rose 0.1% in April over March, notes the Vietnam Courier.

While this small rise is good news for consumers, for drugmakers it means only slowly rising revenues and small profits. The consumer price index rose only 1.5% in the first four months of 1997.

- The Ministry of Health had received just 11% of its funding allocation from this year's state budget as of end-March, the Courier notes. It should have received around 25% of its annual budget allocation by this time.