The National Allied Procurement Office has released the finalized results and tender bid allocations for Round 9 of the national Volume-Based Procurement (VBP) tender program, which took place earlier this month. The total value of contracts awarded reached RMB 1.17 billion (USD 161.5 million), marking a 90% reduction from the original procurement value of RMB 11 billion (USD 1.5 billion).
Winning Manufacturers and Joint Filing Companies
In addition to the original 175 winning manufacturers, 4 joint filing non-authorized companies secured partial region supply volumes. Conversely, 4 winning bidders faced zero volumes awarded due to low hospital demand. The competition was more intense than previous rounds, with the majority of products being low-volume varieties, defined as products with annual sales less than RMB 1 billion. Glycerol fructose sodium chloride injection was the only product awarded a contract exceeding RMB 100 million in value after a 38% drop. The drug generated RMB 600 million in hospital sales in 2022, with the VBP’s impact on its in-hospital sales expected to be relatively minor. Contracts for propofol, lanthanum carbonate, and urapidil were valued at RMB 98.86 million, RMB 97.42 million, and RMB 93.41 million, respectively.
Leaders in Contract Awards
Cisen Pharmaceutical (SHA: 603367) led with a total contract amount of RMB 75.84 million, followed by Brilliant Pharma and Shengsheng Pharma. Notably, Yangtze River Pharma and Qilu Pharma, leading VBP companies across all other rounds, fell out of the top 10 in terms of winning bids in Round 9.
Measures to Prevent Bid-Rigging
To prevent bid-rigging, the 9th VBP round established a related company joint filing rule, requiring joint filing companies to select only one to quote, with others being joint filing non-authorized companies. Not only winning manufacturers can supply regions. According to the tendering document, if an alliance wins the bid, the alliance shall authorize a representative to select supply and spare supply regions, with specific procurement agreements to be negotiated within the alliance. A total of 4 ‘non-authorized’ companies were awarded tender bids for specific regions: Southwest Pharma, Tianjin Tianyao Pharma, Bulin Bio, and Pharscin Pharma, the latter of which also owns winning products as a winning bidder itself.- Flcube.com
