Strategy for Pooled Procurement of Essential Medicines and
Health Commodities, 2013-2017
Table 2: SADC pooled procurement option with stages, benefits and timelines
STAGE
BENEFITS/RESULTS
TIME FRAMES
1. Coordinated information
sharing on medicines quality,
prices, suppliers, availability and
registration.
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with resulting increased competition (more
sources per product)
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2. Development and
implementation of agreed
regional “good practices”
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practices”
3. Coordinated work sharing
through exchange of existing
“good practices” among
Member States
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4. Establishment of the
Coordination Entity: SPPS
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manage the Pooled Procurement Strategy.
Year 2-3
5. Regional tendering for
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products
Year 2 – Development of
tender documents, prequalification guidelines.
suppliers and products.
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procurement agencies
Year 2 – Identify good
practices
Year 3 – Undertake exchange
programmes
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ongoing
6. Regional framework contracts
with suppliers under which
Member States purchase
directly from suppliers (group
contracting).
3.3
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Year 3 – Development of
guidelines for contracting
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Year 4 – Implementation of
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Benefits of pooled procurement
The rationale for pooled procurement is to have quality essential pharmaceutical products available in the market at lower
costs. With pooled procurement, considerable savings can be expected at the stage of information and work sharing by
procurement agencies in Member States. The development and implementation of regional standards and procedures
will lead to increased efficiency and more rapid procurement cycles, which in turn will lead to increased availability.
Pooled procurement will lead to savings and more affordable medicines. With a total population of just under 300 million
and an anticipated SADC pharmaceutical market in the region of USD 4.1 billion, annual price reduction savings in the
region of hundreds of millions of USD can be achieved with successful pooled procurement. The savings would enable
greater access to essential medicines. Products with high inter-country maximum/minimum variations for procurement
prices are expected to have the biggest potential for price reductions. From the situational analysis, products that show
the highest maximum/minimum ratios for common Top 50 items were observed for anti-infectives and paracetamol
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