Abstract

Background

Tendering has been a promising approach for procuring pharmaceuticals. Significant price reductions have been well documented by several authors. To our knowledge, there are limited data detailing the impact of variables in the tendering process.

Objectives

In this article, our objective was to evaluate the impact of potentially exploratory variables, which included innovation status, total value and volume of sales of each product, health care setting administration (hospital/outpatient), patent status (branded/generic), tendering type, and wholesale price, on price reduction in the tendering process.

Methods

Financial data of public sector sales during 2011 were analyzed. On the basis of these data, we selected 178 medicines with corresponding sales of €49 million, out of a total market value of €104 million. Medicines were selected according to volume, value, and therapeutic value across all therapeutic areas. We performed a beta regression for the assessment of impact of variables and applied the same methodology to different subgroups.

Conclusions

The generic status of medicines is statistically significantly associated with a higher price reduction. Tendering type by alternative, high wholesale prices, and high volume are robust estimators for price reduction. Innovation status does not have any effect on price reduction. Outpatient medicines reach lower prices as compared with hospital medicines. A rather unexpected finding is the negative correlation of high sales value with price reduction. These findings will lead to better understanding of the tendering framework, enabling us to further evolve its operational capacity, aiming to generate more savings. Moreover, our study indicates areas in which a more optimized approach is needed.