Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 5 Jun 2026, 11:29 BST

Official UK procurement notice

715867499-RFI 800 Micrograms Fentanyl Compressed Lozenge with Integral Oromucosal Application

Authority: Defence Equipment and Support (Central government)

GoodsBelow thresholdSME suitable
Sectors: Medical Devices & Pharma (33) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 6 Jul 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 5 Feb 2029 · up to 5 Feb 2032 with extensions · starts 1 Feb 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) seeks to understand the commercial availability of fentanyl citrate lozenge products for acute pain relief. To inform our understanding of the current market, MOD seeks answers to the following questions

CPV: Medical consumables · Miscellaneous medical devices and products

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Feb 2027 – 5 Feb 2029 (2 yrs) · up to 5 Feb 2032 with extensions
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Defence Equipment and Support buys Medical consumables (CPV 3314), and who usually turns up

Defence Equipment and Support’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Medical consumables (CPV 3314) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerDefence Equipment and Support · all categories
The marketMedical consumables (CPV 3314) · UK-wide
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 40 of 117 known-size awards · market: CPV 3314 · UK-wide, n=201
34%40%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 13 known-location awards · market: CPV 3314 · UK-wide, n=120
23%26%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 21 decided notices · market: CPV 3314 · UK-wide, n=12
65 days88 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 65 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 165 of 185 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3314 · UK-wide, n=295
89%74%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer21 lots with bid counts · all categories
52% had one bid
The market47 lots with bid counts · CPV 3314 · UK-wide
11% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid52% / 11%
Buyer: 11 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 47 lots with published bid counts.
2–333% / 17%
Buyer: 7 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 47 lots with published bid counts.
4–610% / 23%
Buyer: 2 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 47 lots with published bid counts.
7+5% / 49%
Buyer: 1 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 23 of 47 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer14 lots with estimate and award · all categories
43% below estimate
The market19 lots with estimate and award · CPV 3314 · UK-wide
53% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate43% / 53%
Buyer: 6 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 10 of 19 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%36% / 26%
Buyer: 5 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 19 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate21% / 21%
Buyer: 3 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 19 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 3324 monthsSME suitableNo real estimate

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 33. The comparison uses that group.

Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 252 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet24% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 252 similar lots
1 bid24%
60 of 252 similar past lots received 1 bid (24%).
2–335%
88 of 252 similar past lots received 2–3 (35%).
4–621%
52 of 252 similar past lots received 4–6 (21%).
7+21%
52 of 252 similar past lots received 7+ (21%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No real estimate
The buyer published £0 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Goods
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
5 Jun 2026, 11:29 BST
Last source update
5 Jun 2026, 11:29 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-053242
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Medical consumablesMiscellaneous medical devices and products
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ae83 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

5 Jun 2026 → 1 Feb 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published140 days ago
    5 Jun 2026, 11:29 BST
  2. Tender notice expected109 days ago
    6 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
  3. Market engagement109 days ago
    6 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    n/a

  4. Today
    23 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 100 days
    1 Feb 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    5 Jun 2026, 11:29 BST
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Defence Equipment and Support

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PVRL-5831-GLMM MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol, South West, BS34 8JHContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure