However, the Social Committee believes that the draft law needs to provide more specific regulations on drugs, especially drugs that are allowed to be retailed by e-commerce, and e-commerce business means. Who can participate in buying and selling, how to advise and guide the use of drugs (especially the responsibilities of the person in charge of the profession for selling drugs in the electronic environment), and the responsibilities of relevant parties when an incident occurs; Conditions to allow the organization of electronic trading floors for pharmaceuticals to create fairness with traditional pharmaceutical businesses.
In fact, e-commerce has become an indispensable method in business activities, including trading in drugs and medicinal ingredients. Currently, these activities are being carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Transportation. Electronic translation and related documents. However, in the chain of business activities of drugs and medicinal ingredients, from production, import, export to wholesale and retail, in retail activities there is a different understanding of drugs between people. sellers and buyers, and even differences between drug sellers and drug prescribers, need special regulations to regulate and manage to protect people’s lives and health. Therefore, some opinions believe that the draft law should only focus on regulating drug retail activities in the form of e-commerce to protect consumers.
Regarding drugs retailed via e-commerce, the Social Committee said there are two different types of opinions. The first type of opinion proposes to specifically stipulate in the draft Law the conditions for drugs to be retailed by e-commerce in a direction that only applies to over-the-counter drugs and drugs that are not subject to restrictions. Use or use under the supervision of a physician as recommended by a competent state agency (similar to the conditions for advertised drugs specified in Clause 2, Article 79 of the current Law).
The second type of opinion agrees with the Government’s opinion of not specifically regulating drugs, but assigns the Minister of Health to regulate to ensure flexibility and meet the requirements of scientific and technical progress.
Regarding this issue, the majority of opinions of the Social Committee agree on the first type of opinion because medicine is a specific item that directly affects people’s lives and health; At the same time, we request the Government to supplement information from international experiences in managing this activity and continue to review to ensure consistency between regulations on business, information, and drug advertising at Points a, Point b, Clause 1a, Article 42 and Clause 2, Article 79.
It is recommended to study regulations to have effective control tools to ensure the buying and selling of drugs by e-commerce method is safe for users; Buying and selling are carried out to the right audience, for the right purpose, at a reasonable price and the buyer’s information is kept confidential; Apply measures to connect data with state management agencies to effectively manage and implement the sale of drugs and prescription drugs. This is also an issue that needs to be approached carefully, step by step, ensuring “mature enough, clear enough, practically tested” when put into law.
Regarding e-commerce business means used in pharmaceutical business, the Social Committee recommends that the Government continue to review to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Law on Electronic Transactions and ensure feasibility. , suitable for all forms of pharmaceutical business.
The Social Committee also said that the draft law focuses on regulations for “medicines”, requesting the Government to review and supplement regulations related to “medicinal ingredients” to ensure comprehensiveness (for example posting information about medicinal ingredients and conditions for medicinal ingredients to be traded on electronic media).