This is an activity within the framework of strategic cooperation between VSS and the Embassy of Denmark in Vietnam according to a memorandum of understanding (dated December 2, 2020) signed between the two sides on cooperation in field of health insurance in the period of 2021-2022. After 2 webinars have been successfully implemented (Workshop on Introduction to the Health System in Denmark, payment method of health insurance taking place on January 26, 2021; Workshop on Cost-effective management of diabetes taking place on November 6, 2021, this is a follow-up cooperation activity, in order to support more information for the VSS.

Delivering the opening speech, Mr. Mikkel Lyndrup - Health Counselor of the Embassy of Denmark in Vietnam affirmed Denmark's support for Vietnam in medical innovation activities. Mr. Lyndrup expressed his hope that this workshop will share useful information for the VSS to manage the effective use of drugs in health care activities.

Overview image of the Conference

According to Deputy General Director of the VSS Pham Luong Son, the health insurance fund annually spends more than 40 trillion dong on health insurance drugs. While the need to access new and effective drugs in the treatment of diseases continues to increase, "challenge in the face of increasing demand for drugs but limited financial resources of the health insurance fund, poses the need to have effective and sustainable drug procurement strategies," emphasized Deputy General Director Pham Luong Son.

Vietnam is in the process of reforming its drug procurement strategies. 2013 Law on Bidding, Decree 63/2014/ND-CP of the Government allowing the procurement of drugs in a number of new forms such as price negotiation, national centralized bidding. As for national centralized bidding, it has been officially implemented in Vietnam since 2017. The results of national centralized bidding for the years 2018-2020, piloted by the VSS as well as by the Ministry of Health's concentrated bidding from 2018 to now, have shown effectiveness through procuring quality drugs at a good price (the price is much lower than the previous drug price, and various drugs are cheaper by more than 20%). Currently, Vietnam is conducting drug price negotiations with brand-name drugs and drugs with a small number of registrations necessary for treatment needs. Starting from 4 brand-name drugs negotiated for the 2019-2020 demand, up to now, in 2021, the price negotiation plan has been expanded for nearly 70 brand-name drugs and 2 ARVs.

"Although initially new forms of procurement have shown remarkable effectiveness, however, learning and searching for effective and sustainable procurement strategies are still in place, and play an important role in effectively use of the health insurance fund", emphasized the Deputy General Director.

Appreciating the meaning and importance of this series of seminars held this time, the Deputy General Director expressed his hope that, the sharing of experienced experts on the process of implementing the Danish drug procurement strategy, experience on drug price regulation in Denmark, would bring valuable information to the VSS. We will learn a lot from the process of implementing the drug procurement strategy and drug pricing regulations in Denmark, from which to appropriately apply in Vietnam to improve efficiency of health cost management.

Delegates attending the online meeting

Sharing his experience in effectively supplying medicines to public hospitals in Denmark, Mr. Flemming Sonne, CEO of Amgros (a national drug procurement organization for Danish regional governments) said: In Denmark, the mission of these organizations is to ensure that Danish public hospitals have the right medicines and hearing aids at the right price, in the right place, at the right time and with the right quality. This is done by organizing and conducting bidding and procurement procedures for the owners (regions of Denmark). Currently, 99% of drugs used in Danish public hospitals are purchased through Amgros. Thereby, the regions have saved about 6 billion DKK compared to the listed drug price (ie about 40%).

One of the experiences shared by this expert is "procurement planning according to the drug life cycle", whereby the bidding and negotiation plan will be divided into categories: New and exclusive drugs; Expired drugs and generics; Securing the supply of older drugs, etc. Noting that suppliers are increasingly expanding globally, the Amgros expert emphasized: "All countries must face the same challenges, and small markets at the bottom of the supply order". Therefore, in order to effectively supply drugs to hospitals, Amgros' bidding mechanism always ensures the diversity in supply.

The expert also shared Danish experiences on strategy in pharmaceutical procurement, finding and developing potential new suppliers, optimizing procurement procedures, etc. as well as using assessment pharmacy council pricing to control prices, with the ambition of the danish pharmacy board to guarantee better pharmaceutical prices in Denmark.

With the aim of providing more knowledge about the drug price control mechanism and the Danish health service procurement strategy, this information sharing activity is organized in the form of a series of seminars with two main topics: Sharing experiences on the process of implementing the Danish drug procurement strategy (taking place on the afternoon of November 22, 2021); Sharing experiences on Drug Pricing Regulations in Denmark (taking place on the afternoon of November 23rd, 2021).