People with liver cancer in Vietnam have become increasingly concerned over the rapid price hike of a special medicine widely used for the treatment of the disease over the last few years.

The price of Lipiodol in the Southeast Asian country has increased for seven times over the past five years, jumping from a mere VND419,000 (US$18.4) per 10- milliliter bottle in 2013 to VND5.4 million ($237.6) in February 2018.

In the most recent hike, the cost of one bottle soared by more than VND2.5 million ($110).

As the cancer drug is not subject to insurance coverage, patients are now worried they will soon fail to afford to continue on their treatment process.

T.H.P., a 65-year-old patient in Ho Chi Minh City, said he had bought a bottle of Lipiodol at about VND2.9 million ($127.6) in late January, and was shocked to learn that the price was VND5.4 million earlier this month.

Despite the exorbitant cost, P. had no choice but to purchase the drug for his treatment.

Statistics at Cho Ray, the largest general hospital in the southern metropolis, showed that the number of people with hepatic tumors has been on the rise.

Lipiodol is sold at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Seventy percent of these cases can be treated with transarterial chemoembolization, or TACE, which requires the use of Lipiodol.

TACE is a combination of chemotherapy and a procedure called embolization, involving the injection of high doses of chemotherapy drugs directly into the liver to cut off the blood supply to a tumor. 

At Cho Ray, about 18 to 30 patients receive TACE on a daily basis, with Lipiodol prescribed for 15 to 25 of them.

The other three to five patients are treated with a special type of bead that delivers similar effects to Lipiodol - blocking the blood supply to the cancer. 

However, these beads cost as much as VND31.8 million ($1,399) - VND33.6 million ($1,478) per two-milliliter bottle.

Although the bead treatment is supported by health insurance, patients still have to pay 20 percent of the original cost, or VND6.7 million ($294.8) per bottle.

A patient talks to a doctor regarding her liver cancer at the University Medical Center in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

According to Nguyen Quoc Binh, a senior pharmacist at Cho Ray, Lipiodol is the only medicine in the Vietnamese market that can be applied in TACE for cancer treatment with a competitive price.

The drug’s cost depends entirely on the manufacturers and the country’s medicine pricing policies, Binh elaborated.

The pharmacist said the medicine supplier has attributed the Lipiodol price hike to rising input costs.

The boom in demand for the drug, brought about by the generalization of TACE, is also to blame, Binh added.

Local experts have suggested that Vietnam find more suppliers of Lipiodol or look for another type of medicine with similar effects in order to prevent monopoly.

According to a representative of a local hospital that practices TACE, there is currently only one supplier of Lipiodol in Vietnam, leading to monopoly that keeps sending the drug price over the roof.

“Vietnam’s drug administration should establish new mechanisms to allow the import of the medicine from more than one supplier to solve the problem,” he suggested.

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