Selling drugs through e-commerce channels: There are still many conflicting opinions

Selling drugs through e-commerce channels is in line with the trend, however, loose legislation will lead to "more harm than good".

At the 8th session, The 15th National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2016 Pharmacy Law. Issues that continue to receive attention from National Assembly Deputies are related to online drug sales.

Medicines are special goods that have a direct impact on users. Illustration photo - NH

Completely agree with the permission to sell drugs through electronic transactions. This has been happening, just send a photo of the prescription via Zalo to the store, the medicine will be shipped directly to the people without any difficulty, Mr. Nguyen Lan Hieu - Director of Hanoi Medical University Hospital (National Assembly Delegation of Binh Dinh Province) - said: “We should start testing at the hospital pharmacies that have fully implemented electronic medical records. This will create favorable conditions for people, limit the current chaotic situation and also eliminate the mindset of “if you can’t manage it, ban it” .

However, this National Assembly delegate also expressed concern about issues related to online drug sales, especially the risk of harm from selling drugs of unknown origin on social networks. "It is necessary to clearly stipulate that drugs sold online must be licensed for circulation in Vietnam. Drugs sold through the platform e-commerce including non-prescription drugs and prescription drugs, but must be prescribed by a medical facility on the electronic prescription system (medical examination book and electronic medical record). In addition, pharmacies selling drugs online must ensure the standards issued by the Ministry of Health , assessed and licensed. Mr. Nguyen Lan Hieu said.

Mr. Nguyen Lan Hieu also suggested that the Ministry of Health should have a specialized unit to combat the sale of fake drugs on social networks and ensure the disclosure of false information about drugs so that people can look it up through official applications or websites.

Assessing this as a business method that is very suitable for the current trend, however, Ms. Tran Thi Nhi Ha - Deputy Head of the People's Petition Committee (National Assembly Delegation) Hanoi City) - also suggested that clear regulations are needed to ensure strict control.

Ms. Tran Thi Nhi Ha cited the Draft Regulations that drugs sold retail via e-commerce are non-prescription drugs; drugs sold wholesale via e-commerce include prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs and drug ingredients...

If the regulations are as in the Draft, there may be a situation where businesses put prescription drugs into e-commerce retail channels or businesses will get information about patients who need to buy prescription drugs on e-commerce platforms and will conduct sales transactions elsewhere.

Ms. Tran Thi Nhi Ha proposed that the Draft Law should be amended in the direction of "only selling non-prescription drugs through e-commerce" as experienced by most countries in the world.

According to experts, medicine is a special item, it is related to people's health. Selling medicine online can potentially pose many risks, especially the risk of counterfeit medicine, poor quality medicine, which is very difficult to detect and handle in cyberspace. Drafting a law on selling medicine through electronic trading floors if simple and fragmented will lack feasibility.

Selling on e-commerce platforms will cost less than traditional sales methods, which will help to make medicine prices cheaper. However, being cheaper to a certain extent is understandable. But being “too cheap” will cause doubts and suspicions about the quality control and origin of medicine products sold on e-commerce platforms by authorities.

The ultimate goal of the bill amendment is to give people access to the best, safest, and cheapest medicines… Selling medicines on e-commerce platforms is an inevitable trend. This also puts a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of those responsible.

Because if the law is built without sufficient feasibility and not strictly managed, not only will the set goals be difficult to achieve, but more dangerously, this will be paid for with the health and lives of the people!

Ms. Dao Hong Lan - Minister of Health - believes that doing business in medicine through e-commerce in the current conditions is "extremely necessary" but in practice there are still legal gaps.

Because drugs are special commodities, the draft law only allows trading of drugs and drug ingredients through e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce sales applications, and e-commerce sales websites with online ordering functions to clearly identify the legal entity responsible.

“E-commerce businesses are still operating businesses with licenses that fully comply with pharmaceutical business regulations.” - Minister Hong Lan said and emphasized that the places that violated regulations have been handled by the agencies.

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