A pharma firm's labels promised what its formula didn't deliver — ₫120M, licence suspended

Phương Đông Pharma & Trading, a cosmetics maker in Bắc Ninh's Hạp Lĩnh industrial cluster, had three problems its labels could not survive. First, its Oral care gel — batch 310325/MP, produced 8 March 2025 — was made to a formula different from the one registered in its product notification dossier. Second and third, the labels of that gel and of two more products, Nanotech AG+ and Kam For Kids, stated uses that did not match the true nature of the goods.

Vietnam's Drug Administration suspended circulation and ordered the products recalled on 14 October 2025, then followed with Decision 663/QĐ-XPHC on 7 November: ₫70 million for manufacturing against the registered formula and ₫50 million for labels stating uses untrue to the products' nature — ₫120 million in total. The violating goods had already sold for close to ₫100 million.

The sanctions went beyond money. The company's certificate of eligibility to manufacture cosmetics was suspended for a month and a half, the three products had to be recalled and destroyed, the nearly ₫100 million in sales handed back as illicit profit, and results reported to the Drug Administration within 30 days. For Vietnam's crowded cosmetics shelf, the message was that a label's claims are part of the product — and both must match the paperwork.