Here, we provide an overview of the international collaboration between Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy (HPMU) in Vietnam and Chungnam National University (CNU) in South Korea, followed by an outline of the plans for this collaborative relationship. These two pharmacy schools signed a Memorandum of Agreement in 2016, commencing a collaborative partnership that included student exchange programs and joint research initiatives in healthcare. Two exchange programs were held in 2018 and 2019, creating valuable opportunities for students and lecturers at each institution. The programs facilitated learning about the local healthcare system, pharmacy education practices, and hands-on experience in hospitals and drug stores. This collaboration has fostered a thriving environment for pharmacy research. Teams of researchers from both HPMU and CNU have collaborated effectively to address research innovations, scientific issues, and funding opportunities. To date, this partnership has generated 14 joint pharmacy research projects, leading to a significant increase in the number of annual publications by both institutions. To further enhance their commitment to collaboration, HPMU has developed a dual Master’s degree program specifically for HPMU students. The development of a joint educational program that integrates the curricula of both pharmacy schools is well underway. This step is expected to yield a multitude of benefits, including enhanced educational quality, scholarship opportunities for students, and significant improvements to the quality of materials and technical facilities in Vietnam through Korean funding.

Background: The common cold is a prevalent reason for visiting a doctor. This study aimed to determine the national prevalence of use of potentially inappropriate gastrointestinal (GI) drugs in treating common colds in ambulatory settings in Korea, and to identify its influencing factors.
Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed National Patient Sample data from December 1 to December 31, 2018. We included patients aged ≥20 years who were diagnosed with a cold and visited a primary care clinic, and excluded those with GI disorders within the 3 months preceding their cold diagnosis. We investigated whether outpatient prescriptions for these patients included any GI medications and estimated the percentage of prescriptions for GI drugs. Multiple logistic regression analysis investigated the factors influencing GI drug prescription.
Results: The study revealed that 43.8% of patients with cold were prescribed potentially inappropriate GI medications. Women were more likely to receive these prescriptions (odds ratio [OR]=1.314, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.144–1.508). Region and specialized areas of clinics played a role in the prescription of potentially inappropriate GI medications. The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was directly associated with potentially inappropriate GI drug prescription (OR=1.903, 95% CI=1.648–2.199), and patients prescribed fewer cold medicines were more likely to receive GI drugs.
Conclusion: This study highlights the high rate of potentially inappropriate GI medication in treating common colds in Korea. Factors identified as influencing this practice include female sex, surgical specialties of clinicians, nonmetropolitan areas, NSAID use, and fewer medications prescribed in common cold drug prescriptions.

Background: Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is considered as the most distressing side effect of chemotherapy (CT). Overuse of prophylaxis leads to waste of resources, whereas underuse results in poor CINV prevention. Therefore, it is important to explore the pattern of CINV prophylaxis and CINV occurrence to improve the quality of medication use.
Methods: This prospective, observational study was conducted in two oncology-specialized hospitals in North Vietnam in 2019 to investigate the CINV prophylaxis regimens and CINV events among cancer patients receiving intravenous high-, moderate-, or lowemetic-risk CT (HEC, MEC, or LEC, respectively) after the administration of the first cycle of CT. The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer Antiemesis Tool was used to assess nausea and vomiting.
Results: The study included 294 patients (HEC: 224, MEC: 61, and LEC: 9). They were prescribed a similar pattern of prophylaxis for both acute and delayed emesis regardless of their emetic risks. Patient-specific factors, including sex, age, balance disorder, and comorbidity, but not the emetic risk of CT, were associated with the choice of prophylactic regimens. The incidence rate of CINV was 47.3% in all patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that HEC was associated with an increased risk of acute CINV compared with MEC (odds ratio, 2.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–5.32), whereas female sex and younger age were associated with a higher risk of delayed CINV.
Conclusion: CINV management is challenging and may involve over- and underuse of prophylaxis. A more effective approach to prophylaxis in the context of limited resources needs to be developed to improve patient outcomes.

Background: Sodium–Glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, such as dapagliflozin and empagliflozin, are commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Recent landmark trials, EMPEROR-Preserved and DELIVER, have demonstrated that both drugs can improve cardiovascular outcomes in heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, differences in the primary outcomes between these trials were observed when stratified by Asian subgroups.
Methods: This study analyzed data from 59 adults using empagliflozin and 26 using dapagliflozin at Princess Margaret Hospital between August 2016 and March 2022. The primary composite outcome was combined cardiovascular death and hospitalization due to heart failure. Results were stratified using a Cox proportional-hazards model. Furthermore, the occurrence of side effects was evaluated and reported as safety outcomes.
Results: The study found that the cardiovascular and mortality outcomes were higher than previously reported in the literature. The use of empagliflozin resulted in 24.9 composite outcome events per 100 patient years, whereas the use of dapagliflozin resulted in 29.9 events per 100 patient years. Patients taking empagliflozin without heart failure hospitalization in the past 12 months had significantly better composite outcomes than those taking dapagliflozin (hazard ratio, 0.30; 95% confidence interval, 0.12–0.76). However, no significant differences were observed in the composite outcome and all-cause mortality between the two drugs.
Conclusion: A substantial initial decrease in overall survival toward the primary composite outcome within the first year after the start of SGLT-2 inhibitor administration indicates the need for early intervention for this specific patient subgroup. Although constrained by a modest sample size obtained from a single center, the findings of this study highlight the importance of conducting additional research to explore the comparative efficacy of SGLT-2 inhibitors for HFpEF in a larger local population.

Background: Patients with preexisting depressive and anxiety disorders experienced worsening psychiatric conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although antidepressants play an important role in the treatment of depression and anxiety, relatively few studies have investigated the effect of the pandemic on antidepressant adherence. This study aimed to characterize antidepressant adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic at the community pharmacy level.
Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in one independent community pharmacy that did not alter their operating hours during the pandemic. The time periods of the study were six months before (prepandemic) and six months after (postpandemic) the index date of March 11, 2020. Adult patients who received therapeutic doses of an antidepressant with a minimum of two fills during the prepandemic period were included in the study. The mean medication possession ratio (MPR) and percentage of patients with MPR ≥80% were calculated and compared statistically between the two time periods using a paired sample t-test and Fisher’s exact test, respectively. The effects of patient subgroups were analyzed using multiple regression.
Results: A total of 201 patients were included in the study. The mean MPR decreased from 80.4% (prepandemic) to 64.6% (postpandemic) (p<0.001). The proportion of patients with an MPR of at least 80% decreased from 69.7% (prepandemic) to 50.7% (postpandemic) (p<0.005). The mean MPR and proportion of all patients with MP of at least 80% in the prepandemic period decreased in the postpandemic period; also, the patient subgroups did not exert a statistically significant effect on the primary outcome variables.
Conclusion: Antidepressant adherence significantly decreased after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in patients at a community pharmacy. These findings suggest the need for community pharmacists to identify opportunities to improve antidepressant adherence during future healthcare crises.

Background: Following the rapid growth in genetic information related to drug responses, the urgent need to organize this information for clinical use has arisen. The current databases used in Korea lack information about drug responses as they pertain to specific ethnic groups, including Koreans, and the frequency of genomic variants. This study aimed to develop a pharmacogenetics–alternative allele frequency (AAF) database (PharmGAF DB) in South Korea to address this issue.
Methods: Drugs were selected from the drug response database of the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety by studying various pharmacogenetic guidelines such as Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium, Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group, and Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety and drug labels accepted by various health authorities such as the United States Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency. Information on drug responses was collected and updated for a set of selected drugs from pharmacogenetics literature over the past ten years. AAF information was gathered from the Korean Reference Genome Database, the single nucleotide polymorphism database, and the Allele Frequency Net Database.
Results: In total, 80 drugs were investigated, and the pharmacogenomic effects of 142 variants in relation to these drugs were updated. Pharmacokinetic effects were found for 51 variants and pharmacodynamic effects were found for 111 variants. AAF information was collected for these variants in Korean, East Asian, and Caucasian populations. Variants for which AAF significantly differed between Koreans and Caucasians were identified. Finally, PharmGAF DB was created by combining information on the pharmacogenomic effects and the AAF.
Conclusion: The newly developed database, PharmGAF DB, was created by merging information on how drug responses relate to genotypes and allele frequencies among different ethnic groups. PharmGAF DB should improve drug efficacy and reduce the occurrence of side effects by supporting the implementation of precision medicine in clinical practice.