The EU authority, HERA, has visited the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum to learn about how the Nordic countries organise tendering procedures and about their close collaboration to secure supplies of medicines in the Nordic countries.
HERA is the EU’s health emergency preparedness and response authority, and their visit with the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum was hosted by Amgros in Copenhagen. During the meeting, the forum gave HERA an introduction to how it works to strengthen the member countries’ supply security through joint Nordic tendering procedures, and how these joint tenders are set up.
– I consider HERA’s interest in the joint Nordic approach a huge acknowledgement of the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum, and the strong cooperation we’ve built since 2015. I think it shows that the Nordics are an interesting and innovative region, and that the rest of Europe can look to us for inspiration if they want to organise similar joint solutions to secure the supply of pharmaceutical products, says Flemming Sonne, CEO of Amgros.
The Nordics have a well-functioning setup
Iceland, Norway and Denmark announced the first joint Nordic tendering procedure just five years after the Nordic Pharmaceuticals Forum was established. Since then, more procedures have been included in their joint tenders.
– It’s been hard work establishing the joint tendering procedures, and we still have to dedicate significant resources to our joint procurement. Today we have a very effective setup for the joint tenders, and we’ve also been able to introduce common Nordic environmental criteria. This is something we’re very proud of. The Nordic countries are now truly on their way to becoming the most integrated region in Europe when it comes to procurement of pharmaceuticals, says Tommy Juhl Nielsen, director of Sykehusinkjøp HF’s division for pharmaceuticals in Norway.
The setup for joint Nordic tendering procedures, then between Iceland, Norway and Denmark, was in 2022 awarded with the European Healthcare Procurement Award. The countries received the prize for their outstanding, important and scalable collaboration on joint Nordic tendering procedures, and for being a role model for other organisations.
Small countries become a bigger market
These are still several challenges facing the Nordic countries with respect to securing access to hospital medicines for patients. This includes increasing expenditure on medicines due to demographic trends, and new, often expensive, treatment options. Since the countries are also considered small, potentially less attractive markets, there has been particularly strong incentives to join forces to create a larger market that will be more attractive to an increasingly global pharmaceuticals industry.
– Iceland has a very small population and a very small pharmaceutical market, so we saw great potential in drawing up joint tendering procedures with the other Nordic countries from the very start. Looking at our experience so far, joining the forum has definitely made a change. We’ve both achieved better prices and more secure supplies of medicines in areas where it would otherwise have been extremely difficult to attract suppliers to Iceland, says Hulda Harðardóttir, Project Manager at the Procurement Department Landspítali, the National University Hospital of Iceland.
Norway, Iceland and Denmark are planning to announce the next joint Nordic tendering procedure in the spring of 2024.
About HERA
The European Commission established HERA (Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority) in September 2021 to prevent, detect and rapidly react to health crises.
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