Sanofi Vietnam belongs to Sanofi Group, a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturing corporation based on research and development with headquarters located in France. As one of the leading French corporations in the field of research, development, production and sales of healthcare products and services, technology, the company has been established in Vietnam for more than 60 years.

At the exchange, Deputy General Director of VSS – Pham Luong Son emphasized that the current priority of the Vietnamese Government is to “ensure social security” despite all circumstances, which is also the duty of the Vietnamese government. The social security industry acts as the implementing agency for the two pillars of the social security system, social and health insurance. In the field of health insurance and providing drugs for patients with health insurance, Vietnam is currently in the process of reforming drug procurement strategies. Law on Bidding 2013, Decree 63/2014/ND-CP of the Government allowing the procurement of drugs in a number of new forms: price negotiation, national centralized bidding. The national centralized bidding has officially been implemented in Vietnam since 2017; its results for the years 2018-2020 are piloted by the VSS as well as by the Ministry of Health (MoH). Centralized bidding from 2018 up to now has shown its effectiveness through procuring quality drugs at good prices, many of which have reduced prices by more than 20% compared to before. As for drug price negotiations, 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 2019-2020 demand, until now, in 2021, the price negotiation plan has been expanded for nearly 70 brand-name drugs and 2 ARVs. The objective of these innovations is to ensure the most effective medical care in general, and health insurance in particular.

Son also emphasized: “Our core goal is not to reduce drug prices, but rather to Vietnamese people being able to use good-quality drugs at reasonable prices, improving the funding efficiency of the health insurance fund as well as reducing people’s out-of-pocket costs; the most affordable medical equipment and drugs for the patient will be chosen, and costs will be effectively controlled.”

Overview image of the meeting

With the proposal to participate in Sanofi’s drug price negotiation with Vietnam on the overall drug list, the Deputy General Director of VSS suggested that this activity should be proven effective and thoroughly researched by Sanofi; medical technology will be evaluated according to the principle of cost-effectiveness. Drug negotiation activities must aim to achieve the ultimate goal of helping Vietnamese patients access good brand-name drugs, use them safely and rationally, and save the health insurance budget and each patient’s own.

Affirming Sanofi’s commitment to the Vietnamese market, Mr. Emin Turan – General Manager of the General Medicines and Country Lead for Indochina has committed to long-term investment in Vietnam. Currently, Sanofi has been developing in the direction of greening, in line with the general trend in the world and the strategic goals and orientations that Vietnam is aiming for in the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period, in order to minimize negative impacts on the environment, develop a green and sustainable economy. Sanofi is also a strong partner with the MoH and the National Centralized Drug Procurement Center in the implementation of centralized drug bidding from 2017 to present.

In 2020, Sanofi has reduced the prices of some special drugs used in cancer treatment such as Taxotere in some Asia-Pacific countries. Towards this, Sanofi is ready to offer a similar discount route for some proprietary patent drugs in low-income countries, to ensure a good source of medicine for patients.