Patients may get it wrong when referring to the facts and figures about
drug prices announced by competent State agencies in local media. The true fact
beyond all such facts and figures is that they are paying several times more
than what they get, despite assurances from authorities that drug prices are
stable, and that local prices are just one-third or one quarter of those in
Thailand and China.
Nguyen Thanh Lam, head of the
Drug Pricing Division of the Vietnam Drug Administration under the Health
Ministry, asserts in an interview with Nguoi Lao Dong that drug prices are
among the most stable in the commodities basket used for calculating the
consumer price index in this year’s first half. “The CPI for drug and
healthcare services in the year’s first six months increased a mere 2.08%,
still lower than the whole CPI of 2.52%,” Lam is quoted as saying.
Asked to comment on complaints that
drug prices in Vietnam have long stayed much higher than the real value, Lam
refers to a recent survey of prices of 36 types of drug conducted by the
ministry in Thailand and China, saying prices of similar drugs in Thailand are
2.25 times higher while drugs in China are 3.17 times more expensive.
Investigative reports by local
media, however, point to another picture in which drug producers and hospitals
are colluding with one another to push up drug prices, which are constantly
rising. A drugstore owner in Hanoi City’s Hoan Kiem District says in Nguoi Lao
Dong that she has received multiple notices from producers on raising drug
prices since end-June to early July. Zuellig Pharma, for example, has announced
a price hike of between 7% and 10% for 16 types of drug.
In HCMC, many drugstores also
report the same situation, while distributors and importers have informed
drugstores of a new price level, with increases of 10% to 15%, or even 30% for
certain types, according to the paper. Nguyen Duc Chinh, vice chairman of the
Drug Trading and Production Association, reveals in the newspaper that 28 drug
items had prices increasing by an average 9.3% in June, while six other items
had prices falling by 3% in the month.
While authorities claim that drug
prices are stable, Nguoi Lao Dong ironically says “drug prices are stable at a
high level for the past several years” beyond the knowledge of competent State
agencies.
Phu Nu clarifies that actual drug
prices in the country are many times higher than those registered with the drug
authority. The paper says that prices of drugs in tenders to supply hospitals
in Vietnam are quite different from the prices known to the drug
administration. For example, the South Korean-produced Codzidime distributed by
the local firm Vimedimex is registered on the website of the Vietnam Drug
Administration at only VND38,500, but the winning price offered to hospitals
last year rose to VND60,000. Similarly, the Indian-made Micropime is registered
with the drug authority at only VND28,500, while the tender price has rocketed
to VND105,000, and the retail price on the market has risen further to
VND135,000, or nearly five times higher than registered. Meanwhile, prevalent
regulations require that tender prices must not be higher than the prices
registered with the drug administration, according to Tuoi Tre.
The Health Ministry allows for
drug traders to have a profit margin of 90%, but the past many years have seen
the margin to widen to as much as 400%, according to Phu Nu.
Even those drugs that are not put
under tenders can still be prescribed in hospitals for patients, of course at a
price. A doctor in a Hanoi hospital says in Phu Nu that the kickback for the
hospital is some 40% of each prescription. “The Drug Administration has surveyed
drug prices in other countries, but has skipped those steps in the country that
have pushed up drug prices,” says the paper.
In a stunning investigative
report, Tuoi Tre sheds light on the way drug prices are stoked up in the
country, pointing the accusing finger at GSK as a well-known foreign drug firm.
GSK is selling drugs manufactured
by the local firm Savipharm at a price three or four times higher, earning
hefty profit, says the paper.
In a specific deal, Savipharm
exported six batches of medicines at a price of VND3.1 billion to GSK via the
HCMC-based dealer Phytopharma, but the dealer in making customs procedures for
the batches declared a total price of over US$1 million, and in this very first
step, the difference has amounted to over VND18 billion.
Tran Tuu, board chairman of
Savipharm, explains to Tuoi Tre that the cooperation between his firm and GSK
make it possible for local patients to have quality medicines at prices equal
to 40-50% of imported drugs only. However, when asked why drug prices offered
to end-users are many times higher, the board chairman says he does not know
about it.
A doctor reveals in Nguoi Lao
Dong that many drugs when reaching end-users have had prices increasing scores
of times, or even hundreds of times compared to the original prices, beyond the
knowledge of patients. When patients are being drugged in the price cycle for
the sake of producers’ profits, authorities are also to blame.
Truong Van Tuan, president of the
HCMC Hospitals’ Pharmacists Association, plainly puts it in Nguoi Lao Dong:
“Collusion to hike drug prices is inhuman towards patients.”
Son Nguyen
The Saigon Times Daily
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