Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2020-09-15
Buyer: Department of Health and Social Care
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 33600000: Pharmaceutical products
Estimated value: 3869091 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: A requirement for the supply of a range of supportive medicines including end of life, intensive care unit and antibiotics.
A requirement to secure a range of supportive medicines including end of life, intensive care unit and antibiotics for treatments relating to Covid-19 — urgent delivery required for available stocks.
Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the directive. Explanation: given the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the UK (and worldwide) and the impact on global supply chains resulting in shortages and delivery delays, the DHSC needed to secure a range medicinal products including antibiotics required to support patients within palliative care (end of life) and intensive care units.
During the initial response to the Covid-19 virus (the virus) and due to high global demand, there was concern around the availability of certain medicines used in intensive treatment units and for end of life care (the medicines) and there was a focus on ensuring the medicines would continue to be available to avoid the NHS running out and the impact of this on public health. Although wave 1 of the virus has subsided, the contracting authority is now expecting and planning for a potential imminent second wave and anticipates that the high global demand for the supplies of the medicines will be similar to wave 1. The contracting authority, having identified suppliers that are ready, willing and able to supply the medicines, needed to move quickly to secure the available supply. Failure to do this would have resulted in the medicines being sold by the suppliers to another country due to the high global demand. As such and at this time, the timelines for the open procedure, restrictive procedure and the competitive procedure with negotiation (even where accelerated) could not be complied with in order for the contracting authority to secure sufficient supply of the medicines. The contracts are for the benefit of the authority and NHS Bodies along with any other non-NHS bodies which are necessary for the delivery of services or goods to NHS bodies and the local authorities, other government departments or non-departmental public bodies charged with the delivery of healthcare or health-related services in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories including, without limitation, the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly and Scottish Ministers. These contracts were awarded pursuant to a procurement exercise carried out by the contracting authority to identify suppliers able to urgently supply readily available stocks of azithromycin and dexamethasone medicinal products for trials for the treatment of Covid-19. The procurement exercise was commenced by the contracting authority on 25 June 2020 and an invitation to negotiate and submit an offer was issued to suppliers in this regard on 7 July 2020. While the procurement was not specifically divided into lots, the contracting authority awarded a number of contract simultaneously in order to meet its requirement.


Winner: Aspen Pharma Ireland Ltd
Award value: 3869091
Number of bids: 9