This morning (October 22), the 15th National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy.
Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy has received much attention from voters and National Assembly deputies at the 7th session.
After the session, the National Assembly Standing Committee directed the agency in charge of the review to coordinate with the agency in charge of the drafting and relevant agencies to actively organize research and consultation activities to absorb, explain and revise the draft Law.
Participating in the meeting, National Assembly delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha - Hanoi National Assembly Delegation - said that Article 2 of the draft states the concept of expected wholesale drug prices, which is also the concept for drug price management.
However, Ms. Nhi Ha said that through the research report on the experiences of some countries in the world in the dossier submitted by the Ministry of Health to the National Assembly, the main model of drug price management is that the state management agency regulates the ceiling price of drugs such as in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand. Meanwhile, the current draft law stipulates that the maximum wholesale price is determined by the drug importer and drug manufacturer, this regulation can lead to the risk of drug monopoly in the market.
Delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha gave an example of a case where a drug importer determines a very low expected wholesale price and establishes a chain of pharmacies for retail sale, then pushes up drug prices in the retail chain system, but people still have to buy drugs at high prices.
According to the provisions of Article 107, measures for drug price management are outlined. However, regarding the process of receiving dossiers announcing expected wholesale drug prices, the Ministry of Health does not conduct a review but only makes recommendations on prices when the drugs are already in circulation.
In addition, the draft law stipulates that only the expected wholesale price of prescription drugs will be announced and re-announced. So the question arises regarding non-prescription drugs of importers and manufacturers, how will prices be managed?
"When managing professionally, it is necessary to distinguish between prescription and non-prescription drugs, however, I think that when managing prices, it is necessary to manage all types of drugs" - delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha expressed her opinion.
According to delegate Nhi Ha, the draft law stipulates in amended Article 112 that the Provincial People's Committee "organizes the reception of drug price declaration dossiers of drug businesses in the area according to the provisions of the Law on Prices".
Thus, if there are no criteria for localities to issue a list of pharmaceutical businesses that must declare prices, each locality will have different ways of organizing implementation.
Furthermore, for large-scale provinces and cities like Hanoi, this regulation creates more work for local authorities, increasing the procedural burden for pharmaceutical businesses when declaring prices...
From the above analysis, this delegate proposed that the Drafting Committee stipulate criteria for pharmaceutical establishments to declare drug prices so that localities can organize implementation.
“In the absence of impact assessment research, I propose not to declare prices for drug retail establishments because all establishments must list prices when selling drugs and must comply with regulations on data connectivity on the national pharmaceutical system,” emphasized delegate Nhi Ha.
