Last year, Vietnam faced an imminent shortage of TLE600, the main HIV drug supplied by Vietnams’ social health insurance, due to the global supply and unsuccessful price negotiations with the sole supplier. As a result, the Ministry of Health accelerated planned updates to treatment guidelines, replacing the TLE600 HIV drug with newer and more effective HIV drugs, TLE400 and TLD. These new guidelines required the urgent procurement of both new drug treatments. The USAID Local Health System Sustainability (LHSS) project successfully supported the Government of Vietnam (GVN) with an expedited procurement process for the new HIV drugs, using a negotiated price method. The support from USAID significantly contributed to an informed drug price negotiation between the GVN and suppliers, paving the way for final procurement and delivery of the most needed drugs at a reasonable rate. The new HIV drugs, TLD and TLE400, will be arriving soon and will be ready for distribution to health facilities from April 2021, six months ahead of the original plan.
So what? As a result of USAID’s support, this successful procurement ensures the continuous supply of HIV drugs for people living with HIV, and more importantly, HIV patients have more affordable and accelerated access to more effective treatment, further supporting Vietnam on its goal of eliminating HIV transmission by 2030.
