First centralised drugs bid saves 21 million USD

This was the main result of
the first ever national centralised bidding for procurement of medicines held
on December 11.

Of the 22 drugs, five are
specialised drugs and the remaining 17 are generic ones.

Health Ministry officials
said the bidding helped save over 477 billion VND (21 million USD) for the
State budget. Under the earlier decentralised procurement process, the ministry
estimates the pharmaceutical products would have cost about 2.746 trillion VND
(121 million USD).

Deputy Health Minister Pham
Le Tuan said that when the bids were organised separately by localities, hospitals
or healthcare centres, the costs of a drug differed greatly, and were also
likely to be more expensive.

The centralised bidding
process would have the added advantage of making it easier to manage the
supply, cost and quality of drugs, Tuan said.

Deputy Director General of Vietnam
Social Security Pham Luong Son, said that the centralised bidding was expected
to be an effective way to ensure supply of proper medicines to patients at
reasonable costs as well as increase efficiency of using health insurance funds
for medical check-ups and treatment.

The Health Ministry had
announced in March 2017 the establishment of the National Centralised Drug
Procurement Centre (NCDPC) to handle shortcomings in the then prevalent
bidding process and drug price management in the country.

The centre, functioning
under the Health Ministry, will assume responsibility of organising bids for
procuring pharmaceutical products compiled after collecting requirements from
public hospitals and healthcare facilities nationwide.

The centre will also
negotiate prices for drugs on the list in accordance with the law.

Bids for drugs outside the
list of centralised bidding will be conducted at all three levels – central,
provincial and lower-level State-run facilities –under the management of the
new centre.

Officials say this will
contribute to effective utilisation of health insurance funds for medical
check-ups and treatment, enhance fund balancing capability and ensure the
rights of patients with health insurance.

According to Vietnam Social
Security, in 2015, the expenditure on medicines was 26 trillion VND, accounting
for 48.3 percent of the health insurance fund.

Deputy Director of the Hanoi
Health Department, Tran Van Trung, said that they had organised a local
centralised drug bidding procurement for the first time.

He said difficulties
remained relating to the four different lists of drugs, given that the process
was different, with some being handled by the Health Ministry and
Social Security, and others by localities or healthcare centres with their own
lists.

Trung said that for each
list, bidding organisers would sign contracts with winning bidders and the
contract terms were different, causing difficulties for hospitals in receiving
and paying for the medicines.-VNA