As previously reported in February, Vietnam’s registration deadline for Class B, C, and D medical devices had been extended to January 1, 2019. Six months later, that deadline has been pushed back another year, until January 1, 2020. According to Nguyen Tuan Minh, Chairman of the Vietnamese Department of Medical Equipment and Health Works, the current workload is too much for their small evaluation team, and even January 2020 may be too soon. Hopefully, he said, Vietnam will be able to streamline the approval system for companies that already have registrations with Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) countries.
Vietnam’s medical device market is undergoing significant growth. Local companies who are innovators in the device market are preparing to expand globally, seeking partnerships with foreign firms. And Western medtech companies are coming to Vietnam in search of Vietnamese partners, with the goal of increasing distribution of their products to an increasingly appealing Vietnamese market.