Many new points in bidding for drugs, equipment, and medical biological products

Resolving bidding problems in the healthcare sector

According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong, the 2023 Bidding Law will resolve difficulties and obstacles in bidding activities for the purchase of drugs, chemicals, testing supplies and medical equipment. The highlight of the 2023 Bidding Law is that it has dedicated a Chapter regulating bidding in the health sector, ensuring 3 major issues to remove obstacles in the current bidding for drugs, equipment and medical supplies.

According to the analysis of Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong, first, the Law enhances the autonomy and self-responsibility of public health facilities in deciding to purchase drugs and medical equipment. It assigns public health facilities to decide on the purchase of drugs outside the list of drugs covered by health insurance, and the purchase of vaccines for vaccination in the form of services. The Law allows public health facilities to decide on the selection of contractors to implement procurement packages from loan capital, except for State investment credit capital, ODA re-loan capital, and preferential loans from foreign donors.

Second, the Law facilitates the purchase of drugs and medical equipment of a specific nature, suitable for the professional activities of the health sector. Specifically, it allows for the appointment of contractors to purchase drugs and medical equipment in case of emergency treatment of patients or to maintain the operation of medical examination and treatment facilities in urgent cases, avoiding harm to the lives and health of people. The Law applies centralized procurement to rare drugs with low usage quantities. It allows bidding documents to state the origin of medical equipment from a specific group of countries to purchase equipment of good quality. It allows for negotiations to be applied to bidding packages for the purchase of original brand-name drugs and reference biological products; bidding packages for the purchase of drugs, medical equipment, and testing supplies with only 1 or 2 manufacturers.

Third, resolve the difficulties in bidding for the purchase of drugs, equipment, and medical supplies that have arisen in the past, such as: supplementing regulations to thoroughly resolve difficulties in purchasing chemicals with the requirement that contractors must provide medical equipment to use those chemicals, i.e. the "machine ordered, machine borrowed" model.

In addition, the Law has completed the regulations on preferential treatment for domestically produced drugs in the direction of both ensuring the rights of patients in accessing good quality drugs and encouraging enterprises to invest in technological lines and raw materials to produce good quality drugs that meet advanced standards. Regulations on payment of costs for purchasing drugs, chemicals, testing supplies, and medical equipment from the health insurance fund for private medical examination and treatment facilities.

Forms of designated bidding in health sector procurement

Regarding the issue of "designated bidding" in Article 23 of the Bidding Law No. 22/2023/QH15, the form of designated bidding is applied in the following cases: Urgent bidding packages that need to be implemented to protect national sovereignty and security; bidding packages that need to be implemented to immediately overcome or promptly handle consequences caused by natural disasters, fires, unexpected accidents, incidents, disasters or other force majeure events;

Point 3, Article 23 also stipulates that the bidding package for the provision of consulting and non-consulting services, drugs, chemicals, testing materials, medical equipment, components, accessories, vehicles, and construction and installation must be implemented immediately to serve the work of disease prevention and control or to maintain the operation of medical examination and treatment facilities in urgent cases, to avoid causing harm to people's lives and health;

Bidding packages for purchasing drugs, chemicals, testing supplies, medical equipment, components, and accessories to treat patients in emergency situations according to the provisions of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment in cases where medical examination and treatment facilities do not have enough drugs, chemicals, testing supplies, medical equipment, components, and accessories; bidding packages for purchasing drugs and medical equipment with only one manufacturer on the market.

In Section 4, Article 23 also stipulates that for bidding packages or procurement contents with a value of no more than 50 million VND, the head of the purchasing agency or unit is responsible for deciding on the procurement to ensure savings and efficiency and is responsible for his/her own decisions without having to prepare, appraise, or approve the contractor selection plan or the package estimate, and without having to sign a contract with the supplier, but must ensure a complete invoice and document regime according to the provisions of law.

When is price negotiation allowed?

Article 28 of the Bidding Law No. 22/2023/QH15 stipulates that "price negotiation is applied to bidding packages" including: purchasing original reference biological drugs; purchasing drugs, medical equipment, and testing supplies with only 1 or 2 manufacturers.

The Minister of Health decides on the application of price negotiation, promulgates the list of drugs, medical equipment, and testing materials to which price negotiation is applied, and prescribes the process and procedures for selecting contractors for bid packages applying price negotiation.

Regarding "selection of contractors in special cases" in Article 29, the selection of contractors in special cases is applied to bid packages for which contractors cannot be selected according to the provisions in Articles 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 of this Law, including:

Bidding packages for purchasing drugs and vaccines during the testing process, with specific requirements from the manufacturer regarding conditions of purchase, payment, guarantee, security and other conditions during contract performance; Bidding packages for purchasing drugs, vaccines and medical equipment through international organizations; Bidding packages with requirements to ensure national defense, security, foreign affairs, and territorial borders; Selection of lawyers to provide legal services to protect the rights and interests of the Vietnamese state and state agencies at foreign or international tribunals...

The authority to decide on contractor selection in special cases is stipulated as follows: The Prime Minister decides on contractor selection as prescribed in Point c, Clause 1 of this Article; the Minister of Health decides and is responsible for the selection of contractor as prescribed in Point a and Point b, Clause 1 of this Article…/.

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