Draft law amending six laws goes to the National Assembly: drug wholesale prices, medical-device price controls

Editorial note — status: this is a bill, not an adopted law. It was presented to the National Assembly on 21 October 2026 and is being debated at the 2nd session of the 16th National Assembly. The summary below is compiled from press reports of the session (VietnamPlus, Thanh Nien, Suc khoe & Doi song, Dan tri, VietNamNet). The official draft and the Government's proposal have not yet been checked article by article. Provisions may change before the vote. This page will be updated when the bill is passed.

What was submitted

On the morning of 21 October 2026, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan, authorised by the Prime Minister, presented the draft Law amending and supplementing several articles of six laws:

• the Law on Children;
• the Law on Persons with Disabilities;
• the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment;
• the Pharmacy Law;
• the Law on the Elderly;
• the Law on Health Insurance.

The draft has eight articles and is grouped around four aims: allocating powers to the right level, cutting administrative procedures and business conditions, keeping the legal system consistent after the reorganisation of government bodies and the two-tier local government model, and tightening the management of drugs and medical devices.

Pharmacy Law — what changes for drug companies

• Expected wholesale prices: new rules on publishing the expected wholesale price of a drug and the method used to set it. The procedure for publicly posting declarations and re-declarations of expected wholesale prices is simplified.
• Data sharing: the pharmacy data system would be linked to and share data with other systems, mainly to support price management.
• Marketing authorisation: simpler conditions for granting drug marketing authorisations in Vietnam. Documents that can be pulled from the national database would no longer need to be filed.
• Drug advertising: the power to confirm drug advertising content would be decentralised.
• Consistency: wording aligned with the Law on Electronic Transactions and the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment.
• Livestream sales: Thanh Nien reports that the bill adds a ban on trading drugs and pharmaceutical materials through livestream sales. Other reports of the same session do not mention this provision — treat it as unconfirmed until the official draft is published.

Medical devices — price controls and lifecycle management

The device provisions sit in the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (Article 113). Their stated goal is to stop devices being traded through chains of intermediaries to push prices up.

• Devices would be managed across their whole lifecycle and supply chain — from research, production, clinical testing and distribution to advertising, pricing, use, recall and destruction.
• Businesses, including registration holders, would be legally responsible for the legality, safety and quality of the devices they supply.
• Information on device prices and on device businesses would be published according to a roadmap. Data would be shared between the health, customs, tax, procurement and health-insurance authorities.
• For devices subject to price listing, businesses must post the listed price on the medical-device data system and update it when it changes. Listed or published prices must come with traceability information, technical specifications, intended use and Vietnamese instructions for use.
• Businesses must declare prices, update declared prices, and publish the list of distributors and sellers on the system. A price change within a band set by the Government would not require a new declaration.

Other changes in the bill

• Service prices for medical examination and treatment would be set uniformly by technical level (Article 110).
• The forms of medical facilities would be restructured (Article 48), with matching changes in the Law on Health Insurance.
• Two provisions not explained in the Government's proposal: recognition of practising licences issued abroad (Article 29, clause 2) and removal of the procedure for approving new techniques (Article 93, clause 3).
• The Law on Children, the Law on Persons with Disabilities and the Law on the Elderly are amended mainly to match the new local-government structure.

What the reviewing committee said

The Committee for Culture and Society, chaired by Nguyen Dac Vinh, agreed with the scope of the bill and most of its content, and asked for further work on several points:

• Devices: link lifecycle management to traceability of origin and quality; set data-access rules that do not breach trade secrets; make the price band flexible by device group; balance re-declaration duties against compliance costs; add duties for manufacturers and health facilities; remove overlaps with the laws on prices, procurement and customs.
• Drugs: close the gap where an advertising dossier refused in one province is filed again in another; set a clear timeline for completing the national pharmacy database, including price data.
• Medical examination: insured patients who choose on-request services should still be reimbursed for the insured portion.
• New provisions: the committee said it could not assess the two provisions on foreign practising licences and new techniques because Proposal 825 did not explain them.

What this means for businesses

• Drug companies and importers: expect expected-wholesale-price filings to carry a stated pricing method, and price data to be visible to other agencies. Check that current declarations on the Drug Administration of Vietnam portal are complete and consistent.
• Medical-device businesses: prepare to post and maintain listed prices, distributor lists and technical information on the medical-device data system. Price changes outside the Government band would trigger a new declaration.
• Online sellers: if the livestream ban is confirmed, drug sales through livestream channels would have to stop once the law takes effect.
• Implementing decree: the Ministry of Health is already consulting on a draft Decree amending Decree 163/2025/ND-CP to guide the amended Pharmacy Law. Comments are due by 2 November 2026 — see the related article below.

What is not known yet

• The vote date and whether the bill will be passed at this session.
• The effective date and any transitional provisions.
• The final wording of the livestream ban and of the device price band.

Sources

• VietnamPlus, 21 October 2026 — https://www.vietnamplus.vn/sua-doi-6-luat-ve-y-te-kiem-soat-gia-thuoc-ngan-mua-ban-long-vong-de-nang-gia-thiet-bi-post1143304.vnp
• Thanh Nien, 21 October 2026 — https://thanhnien.vn/chinh-phu-de-xuat-cam-ban-thuoc-qua-livestream-quan-thiet-bi-y-te-theo-vong-doi-185261021090927306.htm
• Suc khoe & Doi song, 21 October 2026 — https://suckhoedoisong.vn/siet-quan-ly-gia-thuoc-thiet-bi-y-te-ngan-mua-ban-long-vong-169261021090421581.htm
• Dan tri, 21 October 2026 — https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/trinh-quoc-hoi-giai-phap-chan-mua-ban-long-vong-nang-gia-thiet-bi-y-te-20261021090142673.htm
• VietNamNet, 21 October 2026 — https://vietnamnet.vn/bo-truong-y-te-trinh-du-luat-ngan-mua-ban-long-vong-nang-gia-thiet-bi-y-te-2566876.html
• Medibase related pages: <a href="/news/ministry-of-health-seeks-comments-on-draft-amendments-to-pharmacy-law-decree-163-2025-nd-cp-by-2-november-2026/">Draft amendments to Decree 163/2025/ND-CP (comments by 2 November 2026)</a>, <a href="/medicine/pricing/">Drug pricing guide</a>, <a href="/medical-device/price-management/">Medical-device price management guide</a>, <a href="/search/medicine-pricing/">Drug price search</a>.