Patients using specific drugs are at risk of having their medication stopped due to lack of legal framework.

According to Tuoi Tre, there are currently over 10,650 people suffering from serious and rare diseases such as cancer, serious chronic diseases, rare diseases... who are at risk of having difficulty accessing these drugs, the reason being that the drugs are very expensive and there are not enough regulations to partially support the drugs.

There is a risk that many critically ill patients will not be able to continue receiving a portion of their support medication because there are no regulations, while 3/20 programs are having their new approvals suspended - Illustrative photo

Through our research, these pharmaceutical drugs are used to treat diseases such as lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, multiple myeloma, relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, HER-2 positive breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma...

There are a total of 20 such programs and over 10,650 patients have received partial drug support (19/20 programs) and one program has received full drug support. The total amount of drug money spent on patients in recent years is over 2,920 billion VND.

However, patients who are being treated with these drugs (all of which are very expensive, the cost of treatment can be up to billions of VND/patient/year) may have to stop receiving support in the near future, if the Ministry of Health does not soon have a legal policy for approving a program to support partially free drugs that are not part of foreign non-governmental aid.

Currently, the administrative procedure for this approval has been abolished by the Ministry of Health (according to Decision 2123 dated June 26, 2025). As of October 3, 2025, the Ministry of Health announced that it had received feedback and recommendations from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) regarding difficulties and inadequacies due to the lack of regulations to replace the abolition of this procedure and proposed to amend, supplement, replace or issue new documents.

"The Ministry of Health does not agree with this proposal (of VCCI), because there is currently Circular 31/2018 regulating the implementation of the free medicine support program for medical examination and treatment facilities, including full support, partial support..." - the Ministry of Health's announcement said.

Tuoi Tre 's information also said that the Ministry of Health has actually stopped accepting approval for programs that support partial free medicine that are not part of foreign non- governmental aid from July 1, 2025 (according to Decision 2123 dated June 26). Of the 19 programs that partially support medicine, from July until now, 3 programs that are supporting medicine for nearly 1,400 patients have stopped accepting approval.

Among the drug support programs, there is a program that is about to expire, by the end of March 2026. If there are no amendments in the legal framework (specifically in Article 42 of the Pharmacy Law), there is a risk that patients treated with drugs in the program will not be able to receive support drugs, especially in conditions where treatment costs are very expensive.

Discussing the reason for not reducing drug prices instead of supporting drugs, a pharmaceutical industry expert said that drug prices depend on the manufacturer's policies globally, and prices cannot be too different between countries, but depending on the country, the manufacturer can apply a policy of partial or full drug support, or health insurance co-payment so that patients can receive treatment drugs.

Must the whole be donated to be allowed to donate?

On October 22, Tuoi Tre contacted the Ministry of Health to find an answer to this issue. A leader of the Ministry of Health shared that currently, some departments and bureaus under the ministry still have concerns, saying that if there are support programs, why not support all of them but only support a part, so the draft new regulations have not been approved.

"We also understand that pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money and time to research new drugs. They cannot research and then give them all away, but giving away a part of them is valuable. However, because of the above disagreements, there are no guidelines. If we want a legal framework for partial drug support, we must amend Article 42 of the current Pharmacy Law.

We have also proposed many times to amend this to make drug support more feasible, but it has not been agreed yet" - this leader said.

While there are many different opinions, the risk that terminally ill patients will no longer be able to continue receiving supportive medication is approaching.

LAN ANH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-benh-dang-su-dung-cac-thuoc-dac-tri-nguy-co-bi-dung-thuoc-do-chua-co-hanh-lang-phap-ly-20251022173841975.htm