COVID-19 Pooled Procurement
Access to medical technologies and products is impacted by policies and regulations in the areas of health, intellectual property, and trade. One mechanism that contributes to health systems being to obtain medical products of good quality, at the right time, in the required quantities and at favorable prices, is that of pooled procurement or bulk negotiation. In the Central American region, bulk negotiations of medicines, medical devices and other products of health interest are led by the Executive Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic.
Pooled procurement systems operate by grouping several buyers into a single block, who combining their resources and demand for a certain product, can benefit from negotiating in bulk, rather than individually. The most notable advantage obtained by implementing this system is that of obtaining a better acquisition price for the good or service, for the entire block. Also, suppliers benefit from being able to offer their goods and services to a larger number of buyers at once, and which they would have to do so separately for each buyer, and according to different regulations if the negotiating block did not exist,
Within the framework of the Regional Contingency Plan aimed at complementing national efforts for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19 and other rapidly spread diseases, on July 10, 2020, the Executive Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of Health Central America and the Dominican Republic, issued an open call for a joint negotiation of a batch of personal protection suits for the member countries. Said negotiation has already culminated, and as a result a favorable price was obtained for the region, which resulted in the acquisition of more than 22 thousand personal protection suits, favoring the following institutions, as indicated by the Central American Integration System in its web page: Ministry of Health of Belize: 6,040 personal protection suits; Honduras Health Secretariat: 8,135 suits; Ministry of Health of Nicaragua 6061 suits.
There are several factors that influence access to medicines and other medical products, playing trade policies and procurement systems an important role. With the example of pooled procurement or bulk negotiation that the Central American region has just concluded last month, we can see how the use of this mechanism aims to provide population with better coverage, by seeking to obtain better prices for the block.
Fermina Bolaños Meardi
Senior Associate
García & Bodán
El Salvador