Ho Chi Minh City begins granting import licenses for special treatment drugs, 'quenching thirst' for rare drugs

Ho Chi Minh City has begun licensing the import of drugs to meet special treatment needs, solving the difficulty in importing rare drugs and drugs for emergency use.

Ho Chi Minh City begins licensing the import of special treatment drugs, so that there is no longer a shortage of rare drugs for emergency treatment of patients - Photo: DUYEN PHAN

On December 16, speaking with Tuoi Tre Online , a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said that the unit has completed the licensing process for importing drugs to meet special treatment needs arising during the examination and treatment process for medical examination and treatment facilities.

The Department of Health has now begun receiving applications from units for processing. In previous weeks, due to problems with the signing process on the application, the Department of Home Affairs quickly issued instructions to begin issuing licenses.

In July 2024, the Government issued Decree No. 84/2024/ND-CP on piloting the decentralization of state management in a number of areas to the Ho Chi Minh City government.

With the characteristic of being a place where many large-scale hospitals with many specialties are concentrated and many hospitals are the final line of treatment, the city regularly receives serious cases transferred from many other localities.

Many emergency cases cannot wait for drug import procedures to be carried out; instead, the health system must have a ready stock of emergency drugs (such as anti-poisoning drugs, emergency drugs, anti-snake venom serums, etc.).

Allowing the city to license the import of the above drugs will increase the initiative in supplying drugs to the medical examination and treatment system in the area.

The hospital solves the problem of difficulty in importing rare drugs and drugs used in emergency cases.

In addition, it also creates favorable conditions for hospitals. Specifically, the Department of Health will promptly support necessary information related to the drugs that the hospital needs, and determine information about the source of supply.

At the same time, instruct hospitals to promptly contact pharmaceutical companies that are authorized to import the type of medicine that the hospital needs, and promptly coordinate with the companies to enter the city's public administrative procedure information system to obtain a license to import medicine according to regulations (within 15 days).

This will help shorten the time to summarize the drug needs of medical examination and treatment facilities in the area and the time to prepare documents of the importing facility.

The Ministry of Health has been urgently developing centers to reserve rare drugs and drugs with limited supply. It is expected that there will be 3-6 centers nationwide.

Which group of drugs is TP licensed to import?

The Department of Health said the city is licensed to import drugs that do not have a circulation license in Vietnam, do not meet treatment needs, and fall into one of the following cases:

- Drugs used for emergency purposes, anti-poisoning, anti-rejection.

- The drug is on the list of rare drugs.

- The drug is included in the guidelines for prevention and treatment of anaphylactic shock.

- The drug is used for specific patients being treated at medical examination and treatment facilities to diagnose, prevent or treat group A infectious diseases, cancer, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other serious diseases.

Previously, the licensing of import of drugs to meet special treatment needs in the above 4 groups was under the authority of the Ministry of Health.

Pharmaceutical companies with import functions will import drugs. Usually, pharmaceutical companies will collect aggregate demand from many localities, so it takes a lot of time. In fact, the waiting time for import often takes several months.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tp-hcm-bat-dau-cap-phep-nhap-khau-thuoc-dieu-tri-dac-biet-giai-khat-thuoc-hiem-20241216164032545.htm