SHSKUK increases the value of a tender by €255 thousand after operators showed no interest

For two weeks now, Bevacizumab (Avastin) has been added to the list of drugs that are missing at the Oncology Clinic.

The price of this therapy, for patients who are forced to pay for it themselves, reaches up to one thousand euros.

Bevacizumab is a biological drug that inhibits the formation of new blood vessels in tumors, limiting their blood and nutrient supply.

The University Clinical Hospital Service of Kosovo has acknowledged the shortage of therapies that KOHA recently reported on, including Dabrafenib, which can cost patients up to 1,600 euros, as well as Bleomycin.

For Bevacizumab, as for other therapies that have been missing, SHSKUK has transferred responsibility to the procurement procedures and offers of economic operators.

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"The lack of these products is the result of the fact that during the previous initiation of the procurement procedure, no bids were received from economic operators, as well as an excess. For this reason, in order to ensure the supply of these products and to avoid interruption of patient treatment, a new procurement procedure has been re-initiated, which is currently in process," the response of SHSKUK states, among other things.

The tender for Bevacizumab, opened in May of this year, envisaged the supply of 3,523 pieces.
The procedure was canceled a few days ago, as only one economic operator participated in it, while its bid exceeded the estimated value of 341 thousand euros.

But, in the new procedure, opened a day earlier for the same amount of 3,523 pieces, SHSKUK has increased the budget for this therapy from 341,000 to 596,000 euros, or about 255,000 euros more than in the previous procedure.

SHSKUK has confirmed to KOMA that the offers are currently in the process of being reviewed.

But the increase in the estimated value for the same product and the same quantity, according to procurement expert Qendrim Arifi, raises questions about what has changed between the two procedures.

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"The increase from 341 thousand to 596 thousand euros, or about 75 percent, is considerable and requires a clear and documented justification. It should be known whether this increase is the result of changes in market prices, necessary quantities, characteristics of the therapy or other objective factors. In this case, another issue is equally important for me: why did only one economic operator bid in the first procedure? If the market has more potential operators, the authority should analyze whether the specifications and conditions of the tender have created real competition," said Arifi.

This tender has been divided into 11 lots, with a total value of around 1 million 200 thousand euros. The fifth lot also includes the supply of Bleomycin, a therapy that has been lacking for some time now.