In Shanghai, the procurement of non-NIP vaccines is initiated by the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Shanghai CDC) on the platform of the Shanghai Medical Products Group Purchasing Organization (GPO). While in Qinghai province, the procurement initiator is the Provincial Food and Drug Administration. In some provinces, such as Guangdong and Sichuan, non-NIP vaccine procurement is organized by the provincial public resources and medical products trading platform. In Jilin, Liaoning, and Hubei Province, the provincial CDCs verify the manufacturers’ qualifications, organize expert review meetings, and negotiate prices.
1) Case of Beijing Municipality
Beijing’s local policies and regulations require integrated bidding and procurement for NIP and non-NIP vaccines through the municipal government’s health administration department. The city also implements integrated vaccine inventory management and distribution. All clinics or healthcare facilities providing the vaccination service cannot purchase vaccines from the manufacturers. Previously, all vaccination clinics or other healthcare facilities needed to pick up the purchased vaccines respectively. The model has been replaced by a more centralized distribution via outsourced professional logistic companies with cold-chain qualifications, whose services are also procured by the government.
Since 2015, Beijing has implemented a 3-WHOLE cold chain management system, featuring 1) the whole process management, covering every stage of vaccine distribution, which includes vaccine outbound, inventory, distribution, and vaccination; 2) whole-day monitoring (24-hour non-stop management); and 3) whole city coverage with every fridge set in the vaccination clinics included in the monitoring network. By 2016, Beijing established a real-time monitoring system to enhance temperature monitoring and transportation safety during logistics.
Specifically, if a manufacturer wins the government bid, it must ship the vaccines to the logistics company’s warehouse facilities first. Then, the vaccination clinics and district or county-level CDCs place the order in the system, requesting a certain number of different types of vaccines. The municipal CDCs will consolidate the orders and request that the logistic companies distribute the vaccines to the clinics.
2) Case of Guangdong Province
In 2020, the Health Commission of Guangdong Province released the Provisions Centralized Procurement of non-NIP Vaccines in Guangdong Province, effective from 2020 to 2025, to strengthen the centralized management for non-NIP vaccines. Guangdong province uses a provincial-level third-party online drug trading platform (hereafter referred to as a “trading platform”) to organize the non-NIP vaccine government procurement. Guangdong government defines the roles and responsibilities of different government departments, the provincial CDC, and the trading platform, which applies a three-level (province-city-county/district) collaboration and supervision working mechanism.
During this process, the Guangdong Provincial CDC, together with the Trading Platform, organized the non-NIP vaccines procurement process, including the transaction declaration and material review, to form the Guangdong Provincial Non-NIP Vaccine Catalogue (hereinafter referred to as the Catalogue). After the Catalogue is released, regular updates will be introduced based on the need to control infectious diseases and the vaccine supply status. The newly launched vaccines could be added to the catalog if they meet all the relevant requirements.
All county (city, district) level CDCs, municipal CDCs with direct jurisdiction, and Zhongshan city and Dongguan city CDCs are the main entities involved in Guangdong’s provincial non-NIP vaccine procurement. These entities will consolidate the demand information, such as the vaccine types and amount, to make the procurement plan, which will be reported to the upper-level supervision institutions. Once the procurement plans are received and further integrated, the purchasing order will be placed on the trading platform by the catalog. The vaccines will then be distributed to the respective healthcare facilities.
In the pricing process, Guangdong Province stipulates that the price of non-NIP vaccines in circulation shall not be significantly higher than the national average price for the same period and must remain relatively stable. The price level, discrepancy, and profit margin should remain reasonable. When the national average price is unavailable, the Marketing Authorization Holders (MAHs) shall independently declare a reasonable price. Once the new national average price is updated, the MAH should submit the price adjustment application to the provincial drug trading center within five working days, provided the previously declared price is significantly higher than the national average. The trading center will cease the transition of the vaccine if the MAH fails to submit the price adjustment application.
Content Editor: Menglu Jiang
Page Editor: Ziqi Liu
