CONSUMER CONCERNS...The new policy for purchasing drugs and medical supplies

CONSUMER CONCERNS…The new policy for purchasing drugs and medical supplies – some refinements.

Feb 28, 2016 News

by PAT DIAL
Recently, as published in the newspapers, the Minister of Public Health adumbrated a new policy for the purchase of drugs and medical supplies for his Ministry. On the face of it, the new policy put forward is an improvement of the past but on reading it carefully, there appears to be some refinements necessary.
The first major change is that each Region will estimate the drugs and supplies it needs and forward the requirements with the necessary funds to the Ministry. The Ministry will make central purchases to benefit from economies of scale and quality control. It is suggested that an officer or officers should be deployed to the Region to give guidance and ensure that the drugs are not wasted or stolen.
The Minister mentioned that the Ministry would be moving away from brand-name drugs and equipment to generic ones. Presumably, the main reason for this is that generics are much cheaper than brand-names. Brand-name drugs have a universal acceptance and are covered by insurance in case such drugs cause harm to the user. The great attraction of the generics is that they are so much cheaper and a budget goes a longer way.
In buying generics, the Ministry will generally have to monitor to ensure that such drugs are not below standard. There are a number of well-established firms with proper laboratories which supply quality generics and the Ministry should source these.
Sometimes, generics made by unknown firms tend to be deficient in strength and this could have harmful effects on patients, especially in surgical procedures.
Incidentally, country of origin of drugs is no guarantee of quality or safety. For example, several years ago, the local market was inundated with fairly cheap drugs coming from a firm in Hamburg, Germany. All products carried Helms labels and gave the impression that they were German products. It turned out that none of the products were produced in Germany but rather in the “bottom-houses” in various countries of East Asia.
It was the Bureau of Standards which uncovered the fraud and had Helms banned forthwith.
The other major change effectuated in the new policy is in the bidding documents. These changes include being allowed to bid for specific lots of items and also be allowed to bid for a partial supply rather than 100%.
There will also be adjustments to the requirements to be met by suppliers as to the validation of the standards of the drugs supplied. These changes were made according to the press reports to accommodate the bids of small suppliers. The Ministry should provide laboratory testing for all drugs bought from non-reputable generic firms or have the suppliers provide valid certificates from reputable laboratories.
Such testing or certification should be a necessity from smaller suppliers who tend to source their supplies from the cheapest suppliers.
In any case, the bidding documents must ensure that the interest of the consumer takes precedence over that of the supplier or anyone else.
There are one or two requirements which the New Policy does not mention as stated in the press release. The first is the requirement of the storage of drugs. Every supplier should have facilities to store the drugs he is supplying to the Ministry since many drugs deteriorate with poor or inadequate storage. The Ministry must inspect such storage.
And secondly, the expiry times should be specified in the Policy; a supplier may offer an extremely attractive price but with an expiry date which is in a few months.
Lastly, it is suggested that the Ministry should give priority to locally-produced drugs since surveillance as to quality would be easier and this would help towards achieving national drug security and may also induce some suppliers to embark upon manufacturing.

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CONSUMER CONCERNS…The new policy for purchasing drugs and medical supplies – some refinements.

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CONSUMER CONCERNS…The new policy for purchasing drugs and medical supplies – some refinements.

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