Fearing the risk of monopoly, people have to buy medicine at high prices

Discussing regulations related to amending the Law on Pharmacy, National Assembly delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha worried about the risk of drug monopoly, people having to buy drugs at high prices.

Delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha ( Hanoi National Assembly Delegation) is concerned about the risk of drug monopoly in the market. Photo: QH.

This morning (October 22), the 15th National Assembly discussed at 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 activities, consult opinions to absorb, explain and revise the draft Law. Participating in the hall, National Assembly deputy (NA) Tran Thi Nhi Ha - Hanoi NA delegation - said that Article 2 of the draft states the concept of expected wholesale price of drugs, 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 the maximum wholesale price 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 that in the case where the drug importer determines the expected wholesale price very low and establishes a chain of pharmacies for retail sale, then pushes up the price of drugs in the retail chain system, 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 when receiving the dossier announcing the expected wholesale price of drugs, the Ministry of Health does not conduct a review but only makes recommendations on the price when the drug is 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 is how to manage prices for non-prescription drugs of importers and manufacturers? "When managing professionally, it is necessary to distinguish between prescription and non-prescription drugs, however, I think that price management requires management of all types of drugs" - delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha expressed her opinion. According to delegate Nhi Ha, the draft law stipulates in Article 112 of the amendment 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 such as 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 case of not studying and assessing the impact, I propose not to declare prices for drug retail establishments because all establishments must list prices when selling drugs and must implement regulations on data connection on the national pharmaceutical system" - delegate Nhi Ha emphasized.

Laodong.vn

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