On the morning of October 22, at the National Assembly House, continuing the 8th Session, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, the National Assembly held a plenary discussion in the hall on a number of contents with different opinions of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Pharmacy.

Participating in giving comments, National Assembly Delegate Le Van Cuong (Thanh Hoa Delegation of National Assembly Deputies), Deputy Director of the Department of Health, noted that the draft Law submitted to the 8th Session had fully absorbed the opinions of the National Assembly Deputies and had been completed in a comprehensive direction. Concerning Clause 4, Article 1 of the draft Law regulating the amendment and supplementation of Article 7, the delegate said that the comprehensive amendment of Article 7 is extremely important in the context that we have not been able to comprehensively amend the Pharmacy Law at the present time. The amended contents in this Article aim to promptly adapt to the new situation, improve the quality of medical examination, treatment, and health care for the people.

The specific contents amended in Article 7 are of a principled and directional nature, aiming to promote the development of the pharmaceutical industry, including solving practical problems such as drug supply, reform, and priority in administrative procedures... but also including strategic goals and tasks, long-term vision with specific focuses and key points such as preferential policies in investment, scientific research, technology application, human resource training... to develop the pharmaceutical industry into a spearhead industry in the future.

To ensure feasibility, the draft law also stipulates that the Government is assigned to specify Article 7 (Clause 14), which is a newly added content. However, through review, it is found that there are policy contents that are principles, orientations or policies that have been expressed in other laws, so it is not necessary to assign detailed regulations. At the same time, studying the draft law dossier submitted to the session, in the draft Decree there are many policies that have not been specifically regulated, which may lead to difficulties in ensuring the feasibility and legal effect of the law.

Therefore, delegate Le Van Cuong suggested that it is necessary to continue reviewing and more specifically regulating policies in the draft Law. Policies assigned to the Government for detailed regulation also need to be fully reflected in the Government's Decree to ensure effective implementation as soon as the Law comes into effect.

Regarding Clause 5, Article 1 of the draft Law, it stipulates the amendment and supplementation of Article 8. Accordingly, in the content of Clause 1, Article 8, the draft is proposing two options. Delegate Le Van Cuong proposed to consider choosing Option 1, for the following two reasons: First, Option 1 stipulates the specific scale of the project, which is projects "with an investment capital scale of 3,000 billion VND or more, disbursing at least 1,000 billion VND within 3 years". Although this provision is different from the provisions of the Investment Law, if we evaluate the practical situation of the general socio-economic situation and the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the current period, with the scale proposed by the draft law, the incentives applied to projects with a capital scale of VND 3,000 billion or more and a minimum disbursement period of VND 1,000 billion within 3 years are completely appropriate and highly feasible. At the same time, such a provision also completely ensures balance, creates development motivation and investment environment in the correlation between the pharmaceutical industry and other industries and professions in society.

Second, regarding the legal basis, the explanatory and acceptance report of the National Assembly Standing Committee clearly stated and cited the provisions of Clause 4, Article 4 of the Investment Law as follows: "In case another law promulgated after the effective date of the Investment Law requires specific regulations on investment that are different from the provisions of the Investment Law, it is necessary to specifically determine the content to be implemented or not to be implemented according to the provisions of the Investment Law, and the content to be implemented according to the provisions of that other law".

Thus, with the provisions referred to in Article 4 of the Investment Law mentioned above, there is sufficient legal basis to affirm that the provisions under Option 1 of the draft law ensure consistency and unity in the legal system, and there are no legal conflicts or contradictions between the Investment Law and the Pharmacy Law regarding the content of investment incentives. The content of Option 1 is the content implemented according to the provisions of the Pharmacy Law and not according to the provisions of the Investment Law. This is the incentive that the pharmaceutical industry needs to have to ensure development both in the short term and in the future.

Regarding the trading of drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients by e-commerce, delegate Le Van Cuong said that the draft law has received many new adjustments and revisions in the direction of ensuring strictness and caution for a new business method related to human health. These revisions have enough basis to ensure that a new pharmaceutical business method is put into practice. Accordingly, the draft law has specific regulations on business conditions, electronic means, types of drugs, subjects allowed to participate in buying and selling, prohibited acts, confidentiality of buyer information, traceability, quality management, drug prices... by e-commerce.

However, in the draft law, there is no provision that clearly shows or explains what "trading in drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients by "e-commerce method according to the provisions of this Law" is?

At Point a, Clause 1, Article 32 (Amended Law) stipulates: “a) Trading in drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients, including trading in drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients by e-commerce on e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce sales applications, e-commerce sales websites with online ordering functions”. With this content, the draft law has stated the means of conducting pharmaceutical business by e-commerce but has not shown that the Law only allows and limits business on 3 means including: e-commerce trading floors; e-commerce sales applications; e-commerce sales websites with online ordering functions.

Therefore, to ensure the strictness and consistency between the understanding and implementation of the Law, and to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of this method, it is recommended to supplement the explanation of terms to clearly stipulate and specify: "According to this Law, the business activities of drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients by e-commerce are business activities carried out on e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce sales applications, e-commerce sales websites with online ordering functions that are permitted to operate under Vietnamese law."

Quoc Huong