translated from Spanish: Government receives 287 proposals to buy medicines

The Ministry of Finance and Health received 287 technical and economic proposals to supply the government with medicines during the second half of FY 2019.
As part of the process, which has been described by the pharmaceutical industry as slow and tortuous, at 7 o’clock on the night of June 26 it was published in Compranet, the minutes corresponding to the filing and opening of proposals, that is, the price offers that companies do. The government must review that they meet the basic legal and technical requirements.
Read: IMSS will no longer distribute drugs, Treasury announces there will be competition for distribution
Once the minutes of submission and opening of proposals were closed, participants were notified that it will be this June 27 at 8 a.m., when the procurement strategy called Subsequent Discount Offer for 30 keys will be carried out; that is, they will be put up for auction in reverse to see who offers the best price. 
The full bid failure is scheduled for Friday, June 28 at 5 pm, although there is a possibility that it will differ. The delivery of medicines and health supplies has been set in ten days after the signing of contracts, which has generated uncertainty and concern in the pharmaceutical industry.  
Read: Drug tender process continues between delays, doubts and complaints
“The typical time for consolidated drug purchases, when carried by IMSS, was 60 days. In this case it has been mentioned that it will be 10 days for delivery. That doesn’t give companies certainty that they can deliver in the required time,” says Patrick Devlyn, chairman of the Health Committee of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE).
The manager says the companies that have already submitted proposals is surely because they have enough inventories to meet the delivery within the time frame. But it’s certain that delivery times, he says, motivated some companies to decide not to participate because they don’t have enough inventories. 
On distribution, the call for the competition in which the firms responsible for bringing the drugs throughout the country will be elected will be issued in the coming days. The Ministry of Finance held a meeting with distributors on 26 June to discuss the basis of the process. 
Lots of offers?
At 8 a.m. on June 25, the presentation and opening of proposals began at the facilities of the Ministry of Health in Marina Nacional. But the download of the information in the electronic purchasing system ended until 5:55 of this 26 June, and the closing of the minutes, at 4 p.m. 
Both Patrick Devlyn and Juan de Villafranca, president of the Mexican Association of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (AMELAF), say it is too early to qualify the level of participation. 
Read: Health and Finance delay again the bidding process for the consolidated purchase of medicines
In the past process, for fiscal year 2018, about 160 proposals were submitted. But you can’t make a comparison, based on the numbers from the previous tender, with the current one, Devlyn explains. 
“You could say that participation in this tender was high, but it is by the very nature of the bases, in which distributors were not allowed to participate, which normally represented many keys. Laboratories, on the other hand, represent few, except for one exception. The other is that drug suppliers, as well as devices and healing material, all together, participated. It used to be done separately. That’s why there are so many more participants.” 
The analysis will then have to be waited for the category: drugs, devices and healing material. Then the participation by key and the number of these that were deserted will have to be evaluated. This will be made public in the following days.  
 
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Original source in Spanish