How can terminally ill people taking expensive medications continue to receive support?

The fact that over 10,650 patients are receiving special treatment drugs from a partial drug support program that is at risk of being stopped due to insufficient legal procedures (Tuoi Tre Online October 22) is causing many people to be interested in finding a solution.

Doctors screen for breast cancer in the program "Join hands for the woman I love", currently the drug to treat HER2-positive breast cancer is included in this partial drug support program - Photo: BVCC

The program has been implemented for many years, the number of participants is large, the drugs in the program are all new drugs (cancer treatment, rare diseases...) are expensive, costing up to billions of VND/year/patient, without support very few patients can access it.

One side argues that it is due to the law, the other side asserts that it is due to the way of implementation.

The reason for the program's risk of being stopped, according to the explanation of some related parties, is due to the provisions in Article 42 of the current Pharmacy Law. Current regulations also only allow programs to fully support drugs, not partially support, while up to 19/20 drug support programs to date are partially support.

However, the relevant agencies of the Ministry of Health still have different opinions to handle this problem. Specifically, the Department of Health Insurance has proposed to amend Article 42 of the Pharmacy Law, so that partial drug support can be continued (from July 1, 2025 to now, 3 drug support programs have been suspended from new approval).

Meanwhile, there are opinions that not only the current Pharmaceutical Law, but also Clause 1, Article 88 of the Commercial Law stipulates that the form of promotion "is an activity to promote the purchase and sale of goods and provision of services by giving customers certain benefits". The provisions of this law and Article 5 of Decree 81/2018 do not allow the promotion of medicines.

Therefore, even if Article 42 of the Pharmacy Law is amended, the Commercial Law still does not allow drug promotions.

This expert said that he has been monitoring the implementation of drug support programs in the past time and found that the Pharmacy Law stipulates in detail the drug support program under the authority of the Minister of Health . The difficulties and problems are mainly due to the implementation process of the provisions in Circular No. 31/2018 and the actual implementation, both ensuring the humanitarian meaning of drug support and complying with the provisions of the Commercial Law, not violating the provisions on the prohibition of drug promotion.

Experts believe that it is necessary to evaluate the impact of partial drug support programs, including the 20 programs that have been implemented. In addition to the reported funding, it is necessary to clarify how many patients participated and the effectiveness of the program...

"The essence of the drug support program is partly financial support to reduce the cost that patients have to pay, so in addition to drug support, financial support solutions also need to consider supporting other costs such as diagnostic imaging, testing, chemicals..." - the expert said.

How to support medication so that patients can continue to use it?

Speaking with Tuoi Tre Online , a Ministry of Health expert said that the fundamental solution to continue maintaining the partial drug support program is for pharmaceutical companies to provide support packages to medical examination and treatment facilities according to the total annual estimated quantity (according to the winning bid results, or the quantity used in the previous year).

"Depending on each company's support policy, a hospital can buy 10 but only have to pay 5 or 7 parts of the medicine bill, while the selling price remains unchanged compared to other countries," this expert shared.

Through research, the drugs in the program are all licensed drugs, so this expert believes that the Ministry of Health does not need to approve each program, but only stipulates the legal corridor for pharmaceutical companies to coordinate with medical examination and treatment facilities, proactively implementing according to the scale of each program.

The hospital proactively organizes and implements a drug support program for patients, develops regulations and coordinates with the company to set criteria for patient selection. The drug support rate calculated on the total number of drugs the patient has used is the same for all patients.

The hospital bases the drug purchase price and the company's support to calculate the cost of the drug used, thereby the actual drug price the patient has to pay will be reduced when the patient receives support. Humanitarian support can be through support funds such as the Cancer Patient Support Fund - Bright Tomorrow...

"The programs have been very effective for patients, but the next phase requires a new approach that is more in line with current regulations," said an expert from the Ministry of Health. However, from the Ministry of Health, there are also opinions that it is necessary to amend the regulations that are causing difficulties in drug support.

Faced with the risk that over 10,650 patients may have to interrupt their medication use, relevant agencies need to quickly reach a consensus to avoid affecting patient treatment.

LAN ANH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cach-nao-de-nguoi-benh-hiem-ngheo-dang-dung-thuoc-dat-tien-tiep-tuc-nhan-ho-tro-20251025134318025.htm