E-DRUG: logical underpinnings and benefits of pooled procurement
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The logical underpinnings and benefits of pooled pharmaceutical procurement:
A pragmatic role for our public institutions?
Maggie Huff-Rousselle
Social Science & Medicine, 2012, vol. 75, issue 9, pages 1572-1580
Abstract: Multi-national pharmaceutical companies have long operated across
national boundaries, and exercised significant leverage because of the
breadth and depth of their market control. The goals of public health can be
better served by redressing the imbalance in market leverage between supply
and demand.
Consolidation of purchasing power across borders, as well as
within countries across organizational entities, is one means to addressing
this imbalance. In those existing pooled procurement models that consolidate
purchasing across national boundaries, benefits have included: 1) reductions
in unit purchase prices; 2) improved quality assurance; 3) reduction or
elimination of procurement corruption; 4) rationalized choice through
better-informed selection and standardization; 5) reduction of operating
costs and administrative burden; 6) increased equity between members; 7)
augmented practical utility in the role of the host institutions (regional
or international) administering the system; and finally, 8) increased access
to essential medical products within each participating country.
Many barriers to implementation of a multi-country pooled procurement system are eliminated when the mechanism is established within a regional or
international institution, especially where participating countries are
viewed (and view themselves) as clients/members of the institution, so that
they have some sense of ownership over the procurement mechanism. This
review article is based on two literature reviews, conducted between 2007
and 2009 (including publications from 1996 through 2009), and interviews
with key informants.
[interested E-druggers can contact Maggie directly to hear more about this study; WB]
Maggie Huff-Rousselle, PhD, MBA, MA
Global Health, Analysis, Issues & Strategies
Associate Professor, Tulane University
School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
Department of Global Health Systems & Development
Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Policy and Management
Massachusetts School of Pharmacy & Health Services
President, Social Sectors Development Strategies, Inc.
mhuffrousselle@gmail.com