Key Development
Vietnam’s Ministry of Health is seeking feedback on a draft amendment to Circular 26/2025/TT-BYT that would expand the list of diseases and disease groups eligible for outpatient prescriptions exceeding 30 days from 252 to 372, adding approximately 120 conditions. The proposed additions span cardiovascular disease, hematology, oncology, endocrine and metabolic disorders, dermatology, neurology, and genitourinary conditions.
Importantly, 90-day prescribing itself is not entirely new. Circular 26/2025, effective since July 1, 2025, already allows eligible patients within the existing 252-disease list to receive prescriptions exceeding 30 days and up to 90 days when clinically appropriate. The new proposal would significantly widen the patient population potentially covered by that framework. Physicians would still determine prescription duration according to clinical status, treatment stability and individual monitoring requirements.
The draft also requires healthcare facilities to control contraindications, drug interactions and therapeutic duplication when patients receive treatment across multiple specialties, indicating that the reform is about more than simply dispensing larger quantities of medicines.
Why It Matters
- Lower outpatient burden: stable chronic patients could make fewer hospital visits solely to renew unchanged prescriptions.
- A longer chronic-care cycle: disease management can increasingly shift from monthly dispensing toward 60–90-day treatment cycles where clinically appropriate.
- New pharmaceutical operating requirements: hospitals and pharmacies may need more sophisticated inventory planning as dispensing quantities per visit increase.
- Higher medication-safety requirements: longer intervals between consultations increase the importance of medication reviews, interaction alerts and adherence monitoring.
- Greater opportunity for digital health: telehealth, electronic records and remote adherence tools can bridge the gap between physical appointments.
Healthcare Insight Analysis
The most important element of this proposal is not the number 372 itself. It is the operating-model shift behind it.
Under a highly visit-dependent model, stable chronic patients may repeatedly return to healthcare facilities largely to renew an established treatment regimen. Longer prescriptions can potentially release clinical capacity for patients who genuinely require reassessment while allowing stable patients to be managed with fewer physical touchpoints.
Yet a 90-day prescription also transfers part of the management challenge outside the hospital. More medication remains with the patient for longer periods, while clinical status, concomitant therapies or treatment requirements may change before the next appointment.
The strategic question therefore becomes not simply whether a patient can receive 90 days of medication, but whether the healthcare ecosystem can maintain effective oversight throughout those 90 days.
That requires stronger coordination between physicians, pharmacists, digital systems and patients themselves.
Market Implications
For pharmaceutical companies, the reform could alter the cadence of demand rather than automatically increase total medicine consumption. Dispensing volumes per transaction may rise while dispensing frequency declines, making demand forecasting, supply continuity and longer-duration pack configurations increasingly relevant.
Hospitals and pharmacy operators may likewise see the operational focus shift from transaction volume toward inventory management, continuity of supply and medication management.
The policy could also create greater room for telepharmacy, patient CRM platforms, adherence solutions and remote chronic-disease monitoring.
If implemented effectively, the broader significance could be a gradual transition from healthcare organized around individual hospital visits toward a model built around continuity of chronic care.
Source