Thailand-Vietnam Experience Sharing Workshop on National Centralized Drug Procurement and Price Negotiation

Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), Ministry of Public Health through the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) has been working in Vietnam since 2014. iDSI has supported Ministry of Health (MOH) Vietnam in realising Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through a different approach, to instil health technology assessment (HTA) principles and capacity at multiple levels of priority-setting.

As part of our collaboration with Health Strategy and Policy Institute or HSPI, the focal HTA unit within MOH Vietnam and iDSI, there are several of successful collaborative projects. Three HTA studies i.e. cost-effectiveness of pegylated-interferon in treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection, the study on the diffusion of magnetic resonance imaging device, and cost-effectiveness of trastuzumab in patients with HER-2 positive breast cancer have been conducted in the context of Vietnam and have been a valuable input to inform a national policy in Vietnam. In addition, a wider impact of HTA is observed in a study of reviewing the Basic Health Service Package (BHSP). The recommendation to specify medical indications for high cost medicines and medical devices could lead to a significant budget saved of National Health Insurance namely the Vietnam Social Security Scheme (VSS).