Conclusions

Pharmaceutical tendering will stay as key procurement approach for pharmaceutical products, especially for hospital products but also in outpatient settings for generics/biosimilars or other segments of products with low differentiation.

All stakeholders are recognizing the opportunities (i.e. substantially lower prices) and risks (shortages, quality, choice of therapy, etc.) of efficient tendering. We should expect a reduction of the ‘winner takes all’, ‘lowest price’ tenders, however customers will keep searching for the best balance between low price and sustainable high-quality supply.

The pharmaceutical industry is communicating the risks of tendering and tries to differentiate their offers so that their products remain competitive even after loss of patent protection. What the industry fails to recognise is that the most formidable factor in tendering (aggressive bidding) is under their control. We found the enemy – it is us.