Belgium - Request for Premiums and Benefits by Hospitals from Suppliers of Medicines and Medical Devices in Public Procurement Proceedings

• 15/07/2019
• Articles

The Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (“FAMHP”) has recently come out against hospitals requesting premiums and benefits from firms participating in tender proceedings for the supply of medicines and/or medical devices. According to FAMHP, that practice is not only prohibited by Article 81 of the Law of 17 June 2016 on Public Procurement, but may also run foul of Article 10 of the Law of 25 March 1964 regarding Medicines.
 
At issue is the widespread practice indulged in by hospitals to ask prospective suppliers of medicines or medical devices to take care of unrelated goods and services such as the supply of educational materials and software for patient management or to pay for outreach activities organised by the hospitals.
 
Article 81 of the Law of 17 June 2016 on Public Procurement provides in relevant part that the award criteria of a request for tenders should be connected to the subject of the public procurement procedure. For its part, Article 10 of the Law of 25 March 1964 regarding Medicines prohibits firms, subject to exceptions, from offering or providng benefits in cash or in kind to specific healthcare professionals and institutions in connection with the prescription, administration or supply of medicines or medical devices. Similarly, healthcare professionals and institutions are banned from soliciting or receiving such benefits.
 
Based on a combined reading of these provisions, FAMHP maintains that it is not possible to offer or request free additional services with the supply of medicines or medical devices. According to FAMHP, additional services have to (i) come at a price; or (ii) and this is a puzzling addition, “have to present a cost which expressly forms part of the price of the goods”. Importantly, the services have to present a connection with the goods supplied. FAMHP indicates that this implies that outreach activities or additional software are “not admissible”. It adds that “free competition” should be guaranteed at all times and that a hospital should be able to justify the use of a specific award criterion. In other words, the hospital does not benefit from discretionary powers when crafting and then implementing a procurement procedure.
 
Attached are a circular letter of FAMHP on the subject as well as an opinion delivered earlier this year by the committee for public procurement, an advisory body, which informed the point of view of FAMHP.