The Ministry of Health has developed a budget, proposed to allocate funds to purchase vaccines for the expanded immunization program and implemented many solutions to ensure adequate supply.
On the afternoon of June 3, at the regular Government press conference, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong said that recently the Government and the National Assembly's supreme supervision delegation on Covid-19 prevention resources have agreed to submit to the National Assembly permission to continue implementing the national expanded vaccination program; arrange the central budget to purchase vaccines at the central level.
The Ministry of Health has submitted a report and draft resolution on funding for vaccine purchases to the Government. Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has directed the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance to allocate the central budget for 2023 to purchase vaccines according to previous years. The Ministry has compiled enough vaccine needs of 63 provinces and cities, and directed vaccine supply units to be ready for work.
In recent years, the Ministry of Health has implemented an expanded immunization program for 10 dangerous infectious diseases for children and women nationwide. The program has provided enough vaccines for 2022 and until mid-2023. Hepatitis B and tuberculosis vaccines will last until the end of August; Japanese encephalitis vaccines will last until September; measles, measles-rubella, and bOPV vaccines will last until July; tetanus and polio vaccines will last until the end of this year. Imported 5-in-1 vaccines will last until early 2023. However, in 2022, the Ministry of Health held a bidding but no bidders participated.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong answered at the regular Government press conference on the afternoon of June 3. Photo: Nhat Bac
Explaining in more detail the current shortage of vaccines, Deputy Minister Huong said that in the 2016-2020 period, the Ministry of Health was allocated central budget to order 9 domestically produced vaccines. These vaccines have only one domestic manufacturer, a unit under the Ministry of Health, so the Ministry placed the order. For imported vaccines, the Ministry of Health has implemented a procurement mechanism through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the form of selecting contractors in special cases according to the Law on Bidding, or centralized bidding when there are 3 eligible registrations.
In the 2021-2022 period, according to the Law on Public Investment (amended), there will be no more health and population target programs, but only a number of activities integrated into the expenditure content of the 3 national target programs for the 2021-2025 period. This expenditure content does not include funding for vaccine purchases; the remaining content will be converted into regular tasks of ministries, central and local agencies.
In order to have a suitable roadmap when converting the mechanism from purchasing with the central budget to transferring to localities for implementation, the National Assembly assigned the Ministry of Health to use the central budget estimate to purchase vaccines for 2021 and 2022, covering the first months of 2023. In order to help localities overcome difficulties, Ms. Huong said that it is necessary to continue purchasing vaccines in 2023 as in previous years.
Deputy Minister Huong affirmed that after three months of implementing the Government's Decree, the shortage of medical equipment related to import procedures has been basically resolved. Specifically, to date, agencies have extended the validity of more than 12,500 medical equipment import licenses until the end of 2024. Tens of thousands of medical equipment circulation numbers have also been extended.
Regarding drug shortages, Deputy Minister Lien explained that they only happen with some specialized drugs and rare drugs due to supply difficulties; the demand cannot be determined because of rare diseases, unpredictable timing and quantity. For example, antidotes, antitoxins, and anti-snake venom serum. In addition, Covid-19 and the war in Europe have led to a disruption in the global supply chain for some drugs such as Albumin and Globulin (these drugs are in short supply in almost all countries).
To resolve this, according to the National Assembly Resolution, from the beginning of 2023 to now, the Ministry of Health has announced four batches with a total of 10,500 drugs that will continue to use their registration certificates until the end of 2024. At the same time, the Ministry of Health has licensed nearly 3,000 drugs without registration numbers, valid for 3-5 years. Nationwide, there are currently 22,000 drug registration numbers in circulation with 800 active ingredients. "Currently, the drug supply on the market is basically guaranteed," Ms. Lien Huong affirmed.
In the long term, the Ministry of Health has coordinated with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to propose to include in the draft revised Law on Bidding many provisions to remove difficulties in the procurement of drugs and equipment. In urgent cases, bidding packages for the provision of non-consulting services, drugs, chemicals, vehicles, materials, medical equipment, construction and installation for disease prevention and control, and emergency patient care need to be implemented immediately to protect people's lives.
The bill also proposes to allow the application of contractor selection in special cases for drug and vaccine procurement packages during the testing process, with specific requirements of the manufacturer; other forms besides open bidding can be applied, selecting multiple contractors to increase competition and economic efficiency.
The Ministry of Health is also building 3-6 centers to store rare drugs and drugs with limited supply. "This is a fundamental solution to ensure especially rare drugs for emergency use," said the Deputy Minister of Health.
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