Health technology assessment-informed pricing negotiation in China: higher negotiated price for more effective targeted anticancer medicines?

Background In China, health technology assessment (HTA) has recently been adopted in pricing negotiation for medicine listing in the National Reimbursement Drug List. At present, how HTA is applied to inform the decision-making process remains underreported. In order to explore how the adoption of HTA was translated into listing and price negotiation results in light of the confidential nature of the negotiating process, this study aimed to compare the negotiated price and the clinical benefit of selected targeted anticancer medicines (TAMs) involved in the 2019 negotiation. Main text Among 16 TAMs successfully negotiated, only four TAMs representing four indication groups had appropriate reference medicines for comparison and were, therefore, included in the analysis. The price and clinical benefit of the four TAMs were compared against one or two reference medicines with the same initial indications. The sales prices for nine TAMs before and after the negotiation were extracted from the centralized medication procurement system. Clinical benefits were evaluated based on evidence from published articles and clinical guidelines. The results suggested that, despite the application of HTA, both rational and irrational decisions had been made about the reimbursement of TAMs in the 2019 negotiation, warranting further investigation. Conclusion While the development and adoption of HTA has seen significant progress in China, actions are needed to ensure that the adoption of HTA is effectively applied in decisions on the reimbursement of medicines.

Pulses Value Chain- Pigeon Pea and Gram

Pulses form an important part of agriculture in India given that the country is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses. Owing to their natural resilience to extreme weather conditions, low water requirements and being environmentally benign, pulses have been traditionally a smallholder’s crop. However, with poor price realization, farmers are switching towards other remunerative crops such as sugarcane, soybean, among others. Unlike rice and wheat, pulses are not covered by the regular public procurement system which makes marketing of pulses at fair and remunerative prices a challenge for the farmers. Pulses are no longer a poor man’s diet given the escalating consumer prices. Nonetheless, it is considered as an important source of protein (given the large vegetarian diet base in India), consumption of which is being promoted to address the observed protein gap in the diets. Over time, per capita availability of pulses has declined like other traditional cereals. With changing consumption patterns and emerging dietary deficiencies, there is scope for enhancing consumption of pulses through traditional and value-added products.

The Concept of Introducing Eco-Friendly Criteria into The Contract Procurement System

The article analyses the current level of development of the topic of "green" public procurement both in Russian legal acts and in domestic scientific literature. The authors conducted a categorical analysis of the term "green" public procurement, based on which the definition recommended for use in the Russian system was derived. The analysis of international experience in the implementation and development of green procurement was followed by a description of the specifics of legal regulation in several countries. By means of an electronic questionnaire survey of contracting system entities, the current level of application of environmental criteria in procurement was empirically assessed and the attitudes of Russian customers and suppliers towards the introduction of new environmental requirements in procurement legislation were identified. Thus, customers are not motivated to use "green" criteria, as they are not aware of them and their application may be regarded by regulatory authorities as a restriction of competition, and suppliers are not interested in producing such products, since they will not be competitive due to the high price. Based on the results obtained, recommendations were developed for the gradual, step-by-step incorporation of norms and practices related to the greening of the procurement process into the contract system.

Effects of The Digitalization of Contracts in The Public Procurement System

The article is devoted to identifying the effects of digitalization of the public procurement system. The dominant tendency in the development of the procurement system is determined. A review of the individual elements of the public procurement system, which act as objects of digitalization, is carried out. The specific effects of the implementation of digital technologies are analyzed, contributing to the reduction of unfair, opportunistic behavior of customers, and as a result – a decrease in appeals, an increase in the level of transparency, and the availability of procurement. A comparative legal analysis of procurement legislation is carried out. The statistics of appeals to the antimonopoly service is considered. The conclusion about the reduction of transaction costs when transferring public procurement to digital format is substantiated. A conclusion is made about the digital transformation of the public procurement system, which consists in reducing the costs of their distribution and increasing the efficiency of using budget funds.

Transparency level of the electronic procurement system in Malaysia

Purpose This paper aims to examine the level of transparency of the electronic procurement (e-procurement) system in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach Using the content analysis method, 23 transparency disclosure items from the Website Attribute Evaluation System (WAES) checklist were used to evaluate the transparency level of the e-procurement system. The data gathered from the WAES were analysed using frequency and percentage based on the various categories of transparency. Findings The study reveals that the e-procurement system disclosed 17 out of the 23 WAES transparency disclosure items, which represents a transparency disclosure level of 73.91%. Of the five categories of disclosure, i.e. ownership, contact information, organizational information, citizen consequences and freshness, the detailed results show that the items are fully disclosed for only two categories, and for three categories, i.e. ownership, contact information and organizational information, the items are not fully disclosed. Research limitations/implications The findings of the present research offer a positive indication that the government is moving in the right direction, particularly in efforts to reduce the corruption level in procurement activities and to improve the accountability level of the government. Originality/value The present study is among the few studies that attempts to address a fundamental issue of transparency in the public procurement system that has an important relationship with the occurrence of corruption in procurement activities.

Practitioners' learning about healthcare supply chain management in the COVID-19 pandemic: a public procurement perspective

PurposeThe procurement and supply of crucial healthcare products in the early stages of the COVID-19 emergency were chaotic. To prepare for future crises, we must be able to describe what went wrong, and why, and map out ways to build agility and resilience. How can this be done effectively, given the highly complex and diverse network of actors across governments, care providers and supply chains, and the extreme uncertainty and dynamism in the procurement system and supplier markets? The purpose of this study was to capture learning from practitioners in “real time” in a way that could frame and inform capacity building across healthcare systems with varying procurement and supply management maturity.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study involved interviews with 58 senior public procurement practitioners in central and regional governments, NGOs and leaders of professional organizations from 23 countries, very early in the COVID crisis. Following the first, inductive phase of analysis leading to five descriptive dimensions, the awareness-motivation-capability (A-M-C) framework was applied in a further round of coding, to understand immediate challenges faced by procurement practitioners, how the complex, multi-level procurement system that shaped their motivations to respond and critical capabilities required to face these challenges.FindingsDevelopments across 23 countries and practitioners' learning about procurement and supply in the pandemic crisis can be captured in five overarching themes: governance and organization, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulation and supply base issues. Together these themes cover the strengths and gaps in procurement and supply capability encountered by procurement leaders and front-line personnel. They highlight the various facets of structure, resource and process which constitute organizational capability. However, to account better for the highly dynamic situation characterized by both unprecedented rivalry and cooperation, analysts must also pay attention to actors' emerging awareness of the situation and their rapidly changing motivations.Originality/valueThe application of the A-M-C framework is unique in the healthcare supply chain and disaster management literature. It enables a comprehensive overview of healthcare procurement from a system perspective. This study shows how increasing system preparedness for future emergencies depends both on developing critical capabilities and understanding how awareness and motivation influence the effective deployment of those capabilities.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Changes in Competitiveness in the Public Procurement System

The aim of the article/hypothesis: The impact of the pandemic on the European and global economy is unquestionable. The question is how the epidemiological situation has affected the European public procurement system. The study was limited to assessing the changes in the structure of the procedures used to award public contracts and the possible effects of a lack of dynamics in this respect. The aim of the work is to observe the effects of changes in the structure of tendering procedures and to identify other phenomena in the public procurement system, caused by the pandemic. Methodology: Taking into account the diversity of national solutions in the field of public procurement, resulting both from the legal systems and national practice, an analysis of awarded public contracts was carried out, with particular emphasis on the domestic market. The research was conducted in the direction of determining the changes in preferences of selecting non-competitive procedures, new possibilities of awarding contracts and the analysis of changes in the preferences of the non-competitive procedure on the European Union market. The tools used for the analysis included basic statistical measures and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. Results of the research: As a result of the analysis, it was found that there was a statistically significant increase in the share of the non-competitive procedure on the European market. The observation of individual national markets shows that in some Member States there has been a decrease or a very limited increase in the non-competitive mode. This may result from ad hoc legal changes and means that an unknown number of contracts of unknown value was awarded outside the control of the monitoring of the public procurement system.