EoECPH - Pharmaceutical Wholesale Services

EoECPH – Pharmaceutical Wholesale Services Preliminary Market Engagement Notice

The East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub (the Authority) is procuring a Framework Agreement for the provision of Pharmaceutical Wholesale Services. The aims and objectives of the Framework Agreement is to provide an appropriate route to market for Pharmaceutical Wholesale Services for participating NHS Trusts. This framework agreement is for the provision of pharmaceutical wholesale services to member organisations of the East of England Collaborative Procurement HUB (EoECPH), NHS Commercial Solutions (NHS CS), South East Pharmacy Procurement Service (SEPPs) and Peninsula Purchasing & Supply Alliance (PPSA). The framework agreement is available to any publicly funded entities (not already a full or pharmacy member of the above mentioned organisation(s)) who sign the framework customer access agreement.

The purpose of the PME is to gauge interest and connect with providers within this market-place to better understand market interest, capability and capacity to deliver the requirements. This notice is for information only and the Contracting Authority reserves the right to not proceed to tender or at its absolute discretion to amend it at the time of issue of any further notice or notices or at any other time.

As part of this pre-tender strategy, EOECPH would like to connect with providers of this type of service via a pre-market engagement exercise. We are therefore asking for assistance through completion of our questionnaire. The information provided will help us to form and shape the way the service specification is refreshed and updated for a framework that will last 4 years.

Potential Scope and Service Requirements

This framework agreement is for the provision of safe, legal, efficient and cost-effective pharmaceutical wholesale services comprising the delivery of medicines and other pharmaceutical products to Participating Authorities.

The scope includes a requirement for the suppliers to work with Trusts, where reasonable and practicable, to meet the needs of the changing landscape such as seven day working or projects which integrate clinical pharmacy services and support risk avoidance and clinical governance agendas.

Framework Details

Procurement Procedure: Open

Proposed Framework Length: 48 months

The projected value of service delivery, inclusive of medicines expenditure under this framework, is estimated at £15,000,000,000 (£15billion) over the four years contract period. The proportion of spend considered influenceable has been calculated at approximately 1.2% of the total contract value.

Our intention is to award all bidders who meet a specified technical /quality/Social Value threshold on an unranked basis. This is intended to ensure the framework agreement can be utilised as a contractual vehicle allowing participating authorities to select their preferred supplier based on their particular needs in accordance with the call-off procedure

The main objectives of this procurement are:

• Coverage of all key market players
• Competitive prices delivering cost savings against some previous framework rates
• Compliant route to market for Pharmaceutical Wholesale Services
• Robust call-off procedure providing significant contract management

The market can be categorised into contracted lines, non-contract (agency lines) and non-contract lines eligible for discount, the focal point of the commercial element of this framework agreement.

This new framework agreement utilises the national service specification for pharmaceutical wholesale services and the national key performance indicators. The scope of the agreement remains fundamentally unchanged from the outgoing framework with a selection of refinements based on learnings over the previous framework period.

Service Fundamentals

Suppliers will work in partnership with the Purchasing Authority to ensure:

• Patient safety
• Best possible clinical outcomes
• Patient satisfaction
• Minimal additional costs to the Participating Authority as a publicly funded body

The Purchasing Authority and Supplier will comply with the current Professional Standards. To the extent applicable, the Supplier and Purchasing Authority shall comply with all requirements of relevant regulatory bodies e.g. General Pharmaceutical Council, Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency, Care Quality Commission and Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system, Atamis, in any resulting procurement exercise.

The questionnaire will run on:

The Atamis portal:

health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

How to access the Questionnaire on the portal:

• Suppliers should register on the portal, if not already registered:
• To Express an Interest in this market engagement, search and Select contract reference - C386060- Market Engagement – EoECPH – Pharmaceutical Wholesale Services
• Please complete the questionnaire within the requirements section
• Suppliers can contact the Atamis helpdesk at -

[email protected] or by calling 0800 9956035 for technical assistance when completing responses

The closing time and date for the return of your responses are 12:00 Midday on 21 October 2025. Responses received after this date may be considered at EoECPH discretion. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest and participation.