Sao Thai Duong: Aspiration to bring the quintessence of Vietnamese medicinal herbs to the world

On April 25th, the Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T) held a ceremony to award the National Quality Award, the Global Performance Excellence Award – (GPEA) 2019-2020.

The National Quality Award is an award given by the Prime Minister to enterprises with outstanding achievements in improving the quality of products and services, competitiveness. This award takes into account the operational efficiency, integration with regional and world economies of each enterprise.

In 2020, the Prime Minister signed a decision to award the National Quality Awards to the total of 55 enterprises. Among these companies, 19 business were awarded the National Quality Gold Award. 36 other enterprises received the National Quality Award.

Sao Thai Duong Joint Stock Company is one of 19 enterprises that won the National Quality Gold Award. “This year is the first time Sao Thai Duong participated in the contest. It is an honor and proud to have received the Gold Award - the highest award of the contest”, Ms Nguyen Thi Huong Lien - Deputy General Director of the Sao Thai Duong shared.

Sao Thai Duong Joint Stock Company was established in 2000 by two co-founders, Pharmacist Nguyen Huu Thang and Master of Pharmacology Nguyen Thi Huong Lien. Achieving the National Quality Gold Award results from the strenuous efforts of Sao Thai Duong in 20-year of growth and development.

After two decades of evolution and development, Sao Thai Duong has become a leading science and technology enterprise in the field of manufacturing and trading herbal products. Sao Thai Duong products include health protection products, traditional medicines and herbal medicines.

Sao Thai Duong has built up a modern infrastructure with the main office based in Hanoi. Sao Thai Duong building in Hanoi has a unique museum to display precious medicinal herbs of Vietnam. In addition to the office in Hanoi, Sao Thai Duong has a branch in Ho Chi Minh city and three factories in Ha Nam. Three factories in Ha Nam are built with a total scale of nearly 3 hectares, fully equipped with production lines for medicines, cosmetics, food supplements, bio-products and medical equipment.

Sao Thai Duong is the first company in Vietnam to meet GMP ASEAN standards for cosmetic production. Sao Thai Duong is a pioneer enterprise to invest in a system of factories meeting GMP pharmaceutical standards, factories achieving GMP cosmetic, ISO 14000 standard, HALAL certification and FDA certification for export to the US market.

Sao Thai Duong aims to develop the source of organic medicinal herbs in line with the USDA American and European standards. SUNSTAR has invested in a 30-hectare area to grow the medicinal plant in Son La to produce herbal products under a closed process. The company expect to expand the size to approximate 300 hectares in 2025. By applying modern technological production line and taking raw materials from international standard organic medicinal farm, Sao Thái Dươngone of a few company that is able to produce products that meet the GMP standard.

In recent years, Sao Thai Duong has been a forerunner in the export of scientific and technological products of Vietnam, "bounce back" and being well-received under challenging markets such as the US, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the UK.

Hundreds of research projects on new pharmaceuticals and cosmetics from Vietnamese herbal sources

Constantly investing in the expansion of production scale, Sao Thai Duong soon focused on its development as an enterprise associated with scientific research. Sao Thai Duong is striving to be the most significant scientific and technological enterprise in traditional medicine in Vietnam. The company has a strategy to attract talents, employees, and staff members to meet the needs of the development and expansion of the company. Sao Thai Duong has approximate 1,200 staff members, as well as more than 80 masters and university pharmacists, over 400 pharmacists at high school and pharmacy colleges and about 200 engineers/bachelors.

Sao Thai Duong has participated in high-tech national schemes of the Ministry of Science and Technology. With highly relevant research, Sao Thái Dươnghas successfully applied the results from research projects, launched product lines with high applicability, and is suitable for the market's needs. In 2016, Sao Thai Duong was certified as a science and technology enterprise. This certification is a remarkable achievement for Sao Thai Duong's scientific research efforts.

Annually, the company spends 10% of its revenue on research and development. Sao Thai Duong has carried out hundreds of studies at the company by themselves, holding 13 patents and valuable solutions. Among them, two inventions won a Bronze medal at the International Patent Exhibition in Taiwan in 2019; one invention was awarded at the 2018 invention competition organized by the International Intellectual Property Organization in conjunction with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam.

In the past ten years, the company has been investing in more than 70 pre-clinical research projects on experimental animals, 21 clinical trials at all levels at seven hospitals in Vietnam, one project at the national program on hi-tech infrastructure development research, and develop new drugs from medicinal herbs.

These researches are mainly about developing new drugs from herbal sources and traditional Vietnamese medicine principles combined with modern pharmaceutical techniques.

Aspiration to bring the quintessence of Vietnamese medicinal herbs to the world

In 2020, when the pandemic of COVID-19 broke out, with its internal strength, Sao Thai Duong quickly realized the challenges and opportunities presented. The company quickly cooperated in transferring technology, conducting clinical research, producing two sets of medical equipment for diagnosis and detect coronavirus called "One step RT-PCR Covid kit THAI DUONG" and "Covid-19 RT LAMP Covid- 19 kit THAI DUONG". These kits are provided to the Vietnamese government, contribute to effective anti-epidemic implementation. Over 50,000 RT-PCR test kits and tens of thousands of COVID-19 anti-epidemic products worth over VND 20 billion were promptly given to anti-epidemic frontline units of Vietnam.

Sao Thai Duong's products do not stop at the domestic market and but being well received and exported to foreign markets such as the US, Europe, and Australia. The revenue of Sao Thai Duong has had remarkable growth. In 2020, the income was twice as high as that of 2017.

With the orientation of environmental protection, sustainable development for the community, supporting disadvantaged groups in remote areas, Sao Thai Duong initiated the "Bookcase in the Classroom" with entrepreneurs supporting tens of thousands of quality books for children in the rural, mountainous school building. Sao Thai Duong also join with physicians and doctors organized and participated in lens replacement surgery programs, bringing light to hundreds of older people, providing free medical examination and treatment to thousands of poor people. Sao Thai Duong also gives technical guidance to farmers to grow and buy medicinal herbs to help increase income for rural and mountainous people.

Sharing about the strategic development orientation of Sao Thai Duong in the coming time, Ms Nguyen Thi Huong Lien, Deputy General Director of Sao Thai Duong, shared: "From the day of its establishment, Sao Thai Duong has identified the core of the business is to "Bring happiness to everyone". Since then, the company's brand development orientation has always focused on continuous innovation and quality improvement to create the best products to satisfy customers' needs. With products from medicinal herbs Made in Vietnam, Sao Thai Duong not only wants to provide Vietnamese people with better quality products but also strives to bring the national herbal essence beyond the borders to international friends".