Webinar: Procurement of pharmaceutical products (including vaccines) and medical devices – COVID and post-COVID challenges

On 1 June 2021, a webinar will be held on “Procurement of pharmaceutical products (including vaccines) and medical devices – COVID and post-COVID challenges". The event is organised by the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA) Public Procurement interest group and Healthcare and Life Sciences Commission. Katarzyna Kuźma, Partner in DZP’s Infrastructure and Energy Practice, will be the moderator of this virtual event.

For over a year now, governments and national healthcare systems worldwide have been waging an unequal battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. We have already realised that the challenges faced in the current situation are not merely of a scientific nature.

It has turned out to be critical to:  

• Guarantee proper procurement of pharmaceutical products (including vaccines) and medical devices;
• Establish working and efficient supply chains;
• Guarantee proper and on-time performance of contracts, avoiding unreliable contractors; and
• Organise logistics, e.g. for mass vaccinations.

The same applies to processes related to authorising and registering new medicines and difficult negotiations with pharmaceutical companies on a vendor’s market (global competition for scarce products). There is no doubt that the pandemic is a disruptive event that will change the post-COVID world.

Our joint session organised by the Healthcare and Life Sciences Commission and the Public Procurement Interest Group will address the following questions:

• Do public procurement regulations really fit for emergency/COVID-related procurement?
• Should public procurement regulations apply for this situation or should there be any exclusions?
• What about the authorisation and procurement of new medicines (including vaccines)?
• How should supply contracts be negotiated when global buyers are competing for scarce products?
• What challenges arise when establishing liability for newly authorised pharmaceutical products (vaccines)?

 Keynote Speakers

• Professor Christopher Yukins - Professor Christopher Yukins serves as co-director of the government procurement law programme at George Washington University Law School, and has taught there on contract formations and performance issues in public procurement, bid protests and claims litigation, state and local procurement, anti-corruption issues, foreign contracting, procurement reform, and comparative and international law. He has spoken as a guest lecturer at institutions around the world, and he was a contributing editor to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime manual, Guidebook on Anti-Corruption in Public Procurement. He recently participated in a ground-breaking academic study coordinated by the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), where he aided in conducting a nationwide survey of the United States’ response to the pandemic. Find out more about the study here.
• Professor Albert Sanchez-Graells - Albert Sanchez-Graells is a Professor of Economic Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Law and Innovation at the University of Bristol Law School. He specialises in EU economic law and, in particular, in competition and public procurement law and policy. His research concentrates on the way the public sector interacts with the market and how it organises the delivery of public services, especially healthcare. He is also interested in general issues of sectorial regulation and, more broadly, in the rules supporting the development and expansion of the European Union’s internal market. He takes an economically-informed approach to his legal research and is particularly keen on the analysis of the systems of incentives and enforcement mechanisms that law creates or facilitates. Albert is currently researching the impact of digital technologies such as machine learning, blockchain and the internet of things on procurement governance. Albert is a Member of the European Procurement Law Group and keeps close connections with leading research groups in the UK and abroad.

Date and time: 1 June 2021, 13:30 – 15:00 CEST

The webinar will be held in English.

For more information and to register, please visit AIJA’s website: https://academy.aija.org/programme-public-procurement-healthcare/