Biopharma pharmaceutical company in 2017 won tenders under five medicine procurement programs funded by 2016 and 2017 national budgets held by international institutions, the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.
These are medicines to treat patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases, Anti-D Immunoglobulin to prevent ABO hemolytic disease of the newborn and medicines to treat patients with cancer and patients with disseminated sclerosis.
International institutions bought medicines under the cardio-vascular and cerebro-vascular disease programs using budget funds from the company.
Biopharma supplied around 48,000 packages of medicines via central procurement schemes.
Biopharma President Kostiantyn Yefymenko said, commenting on international procurement, that Biopharma’s request to review the results of a tender to procure blood factor held in 2017 using 2016 budget funds by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which Italy’s Kedrion won, was dismissed.
He said that it is impossible to challenge the results of these tenders, as international organizations procure using closed-door procedures and use immunity under the international law.
“I would say that we won a tender to supply thromboplastinogen using the 2017 local budget held by the Kyiv City Administration,” he said.
As reported, in May 2017, Biopharma announced that the company intended to seek a review of the decision on the results of a tender for the purchase of blood from the UNDP, the winner of which was recognized the Italian pharmaceutical company Kedrion, whose offer was 30% ($600,000) more expensive than that of the national manufacturer.
Commenting on the initiative to create the national procurement agency, Yefymenko expressed hope that a transparent system of own tenders to procure medicines that would create a system of incentives for national manufacturers would be created.
“Our pharmaceutical companies manufacture quite a wide range of products that are rather competitive in the global market and can cover most of our domestic market needs,” he said.
Biopharma is among the ten largest Ukrainian drug manufactures. Biopharma produces immunobiological preparations of blood, as well as drugs obtained by recombinant DNA technology and probiotics.
