The Vietnamese government has ordered an investigation into its own Ministry of Health for its role in a fake cancer drug scandal.

Last week, six former executives and staff members of the private pharmaceutical company, VN Pharma, received sentences ranging from two to 12 years imprisonment for drug smuggling and forging paperwork.

The court found that since 2013, VN Pharma had been importing a drug called H-Capita and falsely advertising it as a cancer drug made in Canada.

Investigations began in 2014, after the company won a contract with the Ho Chi Minh city’s health department to supply the drugs at a suspiciously low price.

It was later revealed that the drugs’ stated Canadian manufacturer did not exist and that documents purportedly verifying the drug’s quality were fake.

The court also ordered investigations to identify doctors and hospitals who accepted $US330,000 worth of bribes from VN Pharma on the condition of prescribing the company’s specific brands of drugs.

In a statement made on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said the case had caused the public to lose trust in the health care sector.

The government’s inspections team has been asked to look into how the health ministry has registered new drugs and licensed importers.