Consider allowing online drug sales

On the afternoon of April 16, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave its opinion on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Pharmacy Law. The new point is to allow trading of drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients on licensed e-commerce platforms or e-commerce applications. The current Pharmacy Law prohibits trading of drugs at places other than registered pharmacy business locations.

Online pharmaceutical business establishments must comply with the law on electronic transactions; protect consumer rights; keep buyer information confidential; publicly disclose certificates of eligibility for business, circulation registration certificates, and commercial packaging. Pharmaceutical retail establishments must advise and instruct buyers on how to use drugs online and transport drugs according to regulations.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that pharmaceutical companies tend to want to loosen regulations on online drug trading to facilitate production and business activities. However, drugs are special products, related to people's health and lives, so "they need to be strictly controlled and their specific impacts assessed."

Mr. Hue suggested that the draft clarify whether the licensing of online pharmaceutical business is applied to enterprises with pharmacy chains or only to individual establishments. The draft law needs to specify in detail the standards for goods sources; handling of violations; the process of delivering drugs to customers; tracing the origin; and the legal entity responsible for handling incidents when using drugs.

The drafting and reviewing committees need to carefully consider the benefits and risks; assess the level of control of state management agencies, and study the experience of other countries on this issue. "How to find the best balance between production, business, and convenient circulation while ensuring transparency and safety for buyers," Mr. Hue commented.

Reviewing this content earlier, Chairwoman of the Social Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh found that this was a new issue, the bill needed to determine which types of drugs could be traded online; the form of trading; and the subjects allowed to participate in buying and selling to create transparency. The majority of opinions from the Standing Committee of the Social Committee suggested only applying it to non-prescription drugs; researching tools to control the purchase and sale of drugs to the right subjects, for the right purposes, at reasonable prices, and to keep information confidential.

Proposal for "post-control" of drug advertising

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said the draft abolishes the requirement to have confirmation from a competent state management agency when advertising drugs and assigns the Government to specify detailed requirements for the content of drug information and advertising. "This amendment is consistent with the new management mechanism in the form of post-inspection," said Minister Dao Hong Lan.

According to current regulations, the content of drug information and advertising must comply with instructions for use approved by the Ministry of Health or the Vietnamese national pharmacopoeia; documents and professional instructions issued or recognized by the Ministry of Health.

The Minister of Health believes that the nature of confirming the content of drug information and advertising is to confirm the content approved from the above documents. This regulation creates administrative procedures, so it needs to be reduced to create favorable conditions and increase the initiative of businesses.

During the review, Chairwoman of the Social Affairs Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh said that the draft law has not yet demonstrated a convincing basis for proposing to remove this provision. In reality, the advertising of drugs and functional foods that do not reflect their true value and uses is directly affecting people's health and psychology. Ms. Thuy Anh suggested not to completely transfer the management of drug information and drug advertising to a post-inspection mechanism.

In case the viewpoint of abolishing the confirmation of drug information and advertising content is still maintained, the Social Committee proposes to stipulate in the draft the principles of recording and requirements for drug information and advertising content. The drafting agency should study sanctions to strictly handle false advertising of pharmaceuticals or functional foods or products that are not drugs but are advertised as medicines on social networking platforms.

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy was submitted to the National Assembly for comments at the 7th session (May).