Prescription medicines will remain dominant over the coming decade, with the biggest focus on drugs for the treatment of infectious and chronic diseases. The OTC sector has the potential to be boosted by the re-categorisation of popular traditional medicines, although presently there are no such plans. In the meantime, market figures will remain distorted by the lack of distinction between prescription and OTC drugs, with most medicines available without a prescription. Generally speaking, market potential will remain below par, given the persistent issues such as low levels of data protection and delays in the drug approval process. In 2017, Vietnam's pharmaceutical market was valued at USD5.3bn, the second largest medicine market in South East Asia after Indonesia and slightly ahead of Thailand. In the same year, on a per-capita basis, medicine spending was relatively low at USD55, behind other emerging countries such as China, but significantly ahead of frontier markets such as Myanmar. Prescription drugs remain the dominant class of treatments in the country, accounting for 75% of total sales, while the majority of this figure (at over 70%) is represented by generic medicines.

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