Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 21 Oct 2026, 14:53 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Request for Information: Oseltamivir and Zanamivir

Authority: Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acting as part of the Crown through UK Health Security Agency (Central government)

GoodsAbove threshold
Sectors: Medical Devices & Pharma (33) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£1pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Apr 2027from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 1 Aug 2029 · up to 1 Aug 2031 with extensions · starts 2 Aug 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

UKHSA is inviting suppliers to participate in a preliminary market engagement exercise for Oseltamivir and Zanamivir through this Request for Information (RFI), in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023.

The purpose of this exercise is to gather information on available products, supplier capability, and market conditions to inform a potential future procurement.

CPV: Pharmaceutical products

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrs
Contract period: 2 Aug 2027 – 1 Aug 2029 (2 yrs) · up to 1 Aug 2031 with extensions
Delivery: UK
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 Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acting as part of the Crown through UK Health Security Agency buys Pharmaceutical products (CPV 3360), and who usually turns up

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acting as part of the Crown through UK Health Security Agency’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: Pharmaceutical products (CPV 3360) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

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: 13 of 49 known-size awards · market: CPV 3360 · UK-wide, n=252
27%4%

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: 2 of 5 known-location awards · market: CPV 3360 · UK-wide, n=141
40%38%

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: 3 decided notices · market: CPV 3360 · UK-wide, n=10
29 days62 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 29 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.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 58 of 68 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3360 · UK-wide, n=133
85%62%

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 buyer23 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 33
48% had one bid
The market34 lots with bid counts · CPV 3360 · UK-wide
18% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid48% / 18%
Buyer: 11 of 23 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 34 lots with published bid counts.
2–339% / 29%
Buyer: 9 of 23 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 34 lots with published bid counts.
4–60% / 15%
Buyer: 0 of 23 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 34 lots with published bid counts.
7+13% / 38%
Buyer: 3 of 23 lots with published bid counts. Market: 13 of 34 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 buyer7 lots with estimate and award · all categories
29% below estimate
The market7 lots with estimate and award · CPV 3360 · UK-wide
43% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate29% / 43%
Buyer: 2 of 7 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 7 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%71% / 29%
Buyer: 5 of 7 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 7 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 29%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 7 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 336024 monthsNo real estimate
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 34 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet18% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 34 similar lots
1 bid18%
6 of 34 similar past lots received 1 bid (18%).
2–329%
10 of 34 similar past lots received 2–3 (29%).
4–615%
5 of 34 similar past lots received 4–6 (15%).
7+38%
13 of 34 similar past lots received 7+ (38%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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 £1 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
Above threshold (FTS publication)
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
21 Oct 2026, 14:53 BST
Last source update
21 Oct 2026, 14:53 BST
Authority reference
C484992
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-099570
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Pharmaceutical products
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078d0c Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

21 Oct 2026 → 2 Aug 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published4 days ago
    21 Oct 2026, 14:53 BST
  2. Today
    25 Oct 2026
  3. Market engagementin 11 days
    4 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT

    To assist in the development of our procurement strategy and to ensure we consider all viable options, UKHSA welcomes engagement from suppliers capable of supplying Oseltamivir and Zanamivir.

    Potential bidders should express their interest by emailing [email protected] to request a copy of the Preliminary Market Engagement (“PME”) Request for Information document. Potential bidders should return the completed RFI by email before 1700 hours on 4th November 2026.

    The aim of this PME notice and the RFI is to notify and engage the market on UKHSA’s current proposals, and to gauge interest in this opportunity from suppliers capable of delivering the products.

    UKHSA will use an eSourcing system for any procurement activity subsequent to this notice. The eSourcing system used by UKHSA is Atamis.

    UKHSA reserves the right to withdraw this notice at any time.

    UKHSA is not liable for any costs incurred as a result of bidders engaging with this process.

    This early market engagement exercise does not guarantee that a procurement will take place, and UKHSA reserves the right to defer from any procurement entirely.

  4. Tender notice expectedin 158 days
    1 Apr 2027, 23:59 BST
  5. Contract startsin 280 days
    2 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    21 Oct 2026, 14:53 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

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acting as part of the Crown through UK Health Security Agency

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PBMQ-7576-DVGW 10 South Colonnade, London, London, E14 4PUContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure