On the afternoon of August 29, the conference of specialized National Assembly deputies discussed the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy .
Discussing this content, delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha (Hanoi City Delegation) commented on the issue of drug price management. This is a very important issue and drug price declaration is a legal basis for organizing drug bidding, so drug price management is always a hot issue, receiving a lot of attention.
The female delegate said that the expected wholesale price of drugs is the maximum wholesale price determined by the drug importer and drug manufacturer before selling the first batch of drugs to the market. Drug wholesalers are not allowed to sell at a price higher than this level.
Thus, we still stipulate that drug importers and manufacturers determine a wholesale price, but other establishments are not allowed to sell at a higher price.
According to the delegate, we do not have regulations on retail prices, and declare retail prices without regulations on surplus prices compared to retail prices. This will clearly cause the drug market to have a monopoly or be very difficult for pharmacies that are not drugstore chain organizations.
Regarding e-commerce drug trading , the delegate said that the drafting committee has edited this content a lot and two main contents have emerged, which are that if retailing is done via e-commerce, the list of non-prescription drugs will be implemented.
However, the draft stipulates another form, which is wholesale by e-commerce, which means selling both prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, specially managed drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Delegates said that implementing this form would be very difficult in practice, because if doing business using e-commerce, it would be difficult to distinguish between wholesale and retail.
According to regulations, wholesaling drugs is not selling a lot, retailing drugs is not selling a little, but wholesaling drugs is selling to a legal entity, retailing drugs is selling to consumers. Thus, drug wholesalers need to prove who they are selling to, whether they are selling to a pharmacy or a pharmaceutical company.
Also talking about this issue, delegate Nguyen Anh Tri (Hanoi Delegation) said that remote medical examination and treatment is gradually developing, prescription must of course be electronic prescription, electronic medical records,... bringing medicine to the patient's home, that is e-commerce , mostly prescription drugs.
Therefore, delegates hope that the Drafting Committee will consider adding regulations allowing the sale of drugs online for cases of remote medical examination and treatment under the following conditions:
First, the medicine must be supplied by a reputable, licensed pharmacy.
Second, the delivery person is a registered person and is managed by the pharmacy.
"Those two ideas are very important. If there are such regulations, this can be done. Remote medical examination and treatment, remote prescription to deliver medicine cannot be prevented. Sooner or later, it will happen and it will happen very strongly," delegate Tri emphasized.
