Family Medical Practice Diamond Plaza

Fake North Face, fake Macbook chargers, fake watches, fake medicine, fake coffee. Everyday challenges for expats.

Medicine for humans is the most worrisome and the most difficult to verify. The ideal solution is often impractical: order from a reputable source abroad, pay inflated western price + shipping, and wait a while.

You did the next best thing: buy one from a western clinic at a lower overseas price, your best hope for a local authentic product.  Then compare to market priced meds at Nhà Thuốc Tây. If they match, you only overpaid one time.

Fake medications are available all over the world.

They have appeared in many organisations who had previously claimed that they only sold the genuine stuff. It is a very lucrative business for the manufacturers and the distributors. The effects the fakes may have on their consumers is not in their business model.

You pays your money and you takes your chances

@blunders
  Not sure what it is you are trying to say. But the stuff they sold me was identical in packaging and appearance from what I also bought downtown. Both were all in VNese. I think perhaps you only have one assurance at FMP....that is that they will make a lot more money on you with the ruse that you are getting top shelf care and buying only the genuine product. At the very least, they made a 400% markup over what  paid retail. I am sure the local pharmacy made a little money. So they made more than 400% more. At the time I was aware of this ,but bought it for the expediency, one, and I forgot to just bypass their pharmacy....my bad.

I agree with the other replies: its entirely up to you. If you feel satisfied that you are getting the genuine product from downtown pharmacies, then definitely go ahead and purchase--you seem genuinely aggrieved that you paid extra at FMP but this is a personal decision that we all make at some point or another when buying foreign products in VN. I bought one medication at FMP, it was 10% cheaper at another medical facility in VN, it was 25% of the FMP price when I travelled overseas and was able to buy at bulk discount with an in-store sale in a local pharmacy in the US. But I needed it originally in VN and I was happy to pay for genuine product for peace of mind. I believe FMP is selling genuine product. Your complaint probably won't change their charging structure for your medication, though they might take note especially if you are polite about it, but ultimately your choice to buy elsewhere is your right.

@melissamerry
  I think you grossly misread my input. I was sold the same identical Vietnamese medication, packaged identically, written in Vietnamese for 400% of the cost downtown. You can suggest that FMP has some ability to know that something so packaged is genuine or not. Indeed,the medication was available from an American drug manufacture ( not included in my original post). But you are right, I made the choice to buy their inflated price for the convenience of it. You sound like you might work for FMP. Myself I put no unswearing trust in any medical provider here or in my home country. In my country they churn you just for the sake of money. They prescribe medication that is not good for you. We in America are a quick fix pill popping society. So I am dubious of them all and watch them carefully. But there can be no doubt there are counterfeit medications on the market here. But in the case sited I would love to hear FMP reasons why they think the medication they gave me was not. Moreover I was prescribed an asthma inhaler manufacture by an American drug manufacture and was charged 400% above what I bought the very same inhaler from the very same manufacture. Yes, maybe both were counterfeit . But again how does FMP know?

I bought a dry skin lotion from FMP was over 1 million dongs. I googled online and it was about the average price people were paying outside Vietnam.
Have you bought other drugs from FMP?

Yes, I have bought other drugs from FMP. Ironically they are all marked up the same amount over the RETAIL price in town. I would not be so doubting if it were only a 100% markup over retail in VN. But in the end I have a choice. I had been warned about FMP gouging tactics with their scare tactics. And indeed there are issues on the VNese market. When possible I ask for Western manufactured meds on the local market. But one of the meds they sold me was all for the local market and in VNese.
Not that I won't ever buy from FMP. But I will approach with caution.

Get a vietnamese wife, problem solved. 

I love to watch my wife haggle, it is priceless.  Mom is even tougher!

Hi sorry a total difference subject as discussed.

I would like to check out more on the paediatrics experience with FMP or FV Hospital.

Any good paediatrician in this two hospital ? or is there any good paediatrician to recommend ?

FMP is not a hospital, but a clinic. They have their limitations because of that. But I have them much better than local providers. Have had no pediatric experience though.

Just a note on difficulty detecting fake medications....
Even WalMart was apparently fooled in US a few years back and was said to be buying millions of dollars in fake meds before it was discovered... if they can be fooled, I know that I can be fooled as well.  It is interesting that so many of the chronic Care medications are cheaper in the US than in VN....

Mtnative wrote:

It is interesting that so many of the chronic Care medications are cheaper in the US than in VN....

My wife bought my chronic care blood pressure medications from a wholesale pharmacy that our first landlady, who owned a small pharmacy, told her about.  Imagine my surprise when she came home one day with a bottle of 81mg Aspirin with the Kirkland Costco brand.