In the current market, there are more than 52,000 e-commerce websites approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, of which about 900 websites have names starting with "drug" or "pharma". The figures show that the need to buy and sell drugs online is becoming more and more popular.
Notably, drug sales systems of large pharmacies often set up a consultation process before allowing orders into the payment basket; customers have to submit the prescription and wait for a consultation call from the sales staff. This is a preliminary control step to ensure safety, but in reality, serious risks are inevitable.
One of the prominent problems is that customers can still use old prescriptions, even from 2020, to buy medicine online.
Selling drugs based on outdated prescriptions or no longer suitable to actual conditions like this will inevitably pose the risk of improper use of drugs, negatively affecting the health of consumers.
The consequences do not stop at individuals but can also spread to the entire health care system.
This reality requires the online drug sales model to be more closely managed based on digital data. Specifically, the mechanism for verifying prescriptions, such as QR codes or traceability data.
When customers make a transaction, they will have to scan the QR code, thereby pharmacies can access the system to determine the validity of the prescription as well as compare personal information.
Looking at the world, countries such as the United States or the UK allow online prescription drug sales but based on a strict management platform: valid prescription, clear license and comprehensive database connection.
Vietnam, although it has just allowed the sale of over-the-counter drugs, still needs to learn from these successful experiences.
The revised draft of the Ministry of Health, with the requirement for mandatory consultation, preservation, transportation and connection of pharmaceutical data, is a step in the right direction.
However, to be truly effective, it is necessary to speed up the construction of a national database on prescriptions, ensuring that each transaction is transparent, and the origin and legality can be checked.
For pharmacies, in addition to complying with regulations on legal operating licenses, they need to have strict internal control measures.
Another challenge that needs to be addressed is the lack of synchronous digital infrastructure in Vietnam, especially in rural areas or areas without enough investment resources in information technology.
Online drug sales are an inevitable trend in the digital age, but convenience must go hand in hand with safety. Otherwise, this utility could become an uncontrollable risk.
