On 31 August 1961, under the authority of the government of the Republic of Vietnam, the school was split into two: Saigon College of Medicine and Saigon College of Pharmacy. In 1964 Saigon College of Dentistry was founded from a division of the medical school.
The practice areas for fundamental sciences and basic medicine were around Saigon such as Pasteur Institute (used to learn about parasitic, micro-organisms), Human Body Institute (for anatomy), and Saigon Hospital (for chemistry). The Installation of Human Body Institute was used to learn about histology, physiology, illness, and anatomy.
On 16 November 1966, with the help of USAIDS and AMA (American Medical Association), the school was moved to Medicine Learning Center (Hong Bang Street, District 5) with a well-equipped system, facility and students of Medicine and Dentistry studied here up to date. It has the Main auditorium for 500 seats, three auditoriums with 300 seats each, a library and labs.
On 27 October 1976, the government reorganised schools in Saigon University Institute. The three schools (Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry) were merged with a new present name — the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at HCMC. The first head office had two floors for offices, a library, a meeting room for lectures, and three side-by-side houses for studying. Although the new name does not reflect the fact that the dental school is a branch of the university system, it has been officially used until today.
In 1994, UMP established a polyclinic with beds for patients who require close observation. In 2000, the successful polyclinic was upgraded to the University Medical Center, Ho Chi Minh City (UMC and the new building of UMC were brought into operation in 2013.
In 2014, UMP reformed its six-year undergraduate medical education curriculum in collaboration with the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam (HAIVN), Harvard Medical School (HMS), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH).
In 2018, UMP becomes AUN-QA Associate Member and is going to apply for Medical education accreditation using international standards (ie. WFME global standards).
In 2019, the Center for Advanced Training in Clinical Simulation (ATCS) was established in the collaborative program with Texas Tech University Health Sciences centre El Paso.
