Official UK procurement notice
Unlicensed and Specials Medicines
Authority: Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionHealth and Social Care Trusts (HSC) in Northern Ireland plan to tender for Unlicensed Medicines and Specials later this year.
In order to assist with the development of a service specification and an appropriate methodology for the assessment of tenders, we are keen to engage with suppliers who would be willing to provide unlicensed and, or specials medicines to Health Trusts in Northern Ireland. The purpose of the engagement is to aid our understanding of current market conditions and capacity. The HSC intend to establish a multi-supplier framework which will cater for four categories of medicines:
- Aseptically prepared unlicensed medicines,
- Imported specials,
- Non-aseptic specials,
- Over-labelled medicines.
We hope that the Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) will help encourage supplier interest in this tender. It will also help us understand any barriers to tendering that suppliers currently face so these can be considered when drafting the HSC tender.
CPV: Pharmaceutical products · Pharmacy services
How this framework works
From the published notice- Framework period
- 4 yrs from 1 May 2026
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedWhat it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
- “Unlicensed and Specials Medicines” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Past planning notice
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Framework agreement
- Who may use this agreement
- Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 Jun 2025, 14:38 BST
- Last source update
- 5 Jun 2025, 14:38 BST
- Authority reference
5858158- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-030294- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0543bdFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Appointment period ends
- —
Timeline
5 Jun 2025 → 1 May 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published5 Jun 2025, 14:38 BST
- Market engagement27 Jun 2025, 23:59 BST
This PME will take place in two phases. Phase 1 will be the completion of a PME Questionnaire that will set out a number of policy areas for consideration and response, including; human rights and net zero.
Phase 2 will be a brief Teams meeting between interested suppliers and Trust members (note each supplier will be allocated a time likely no more than 30 minutes). The focus of the Teams meeting will be to understand current capacity, geographical presence, and business continuity measures. These meetings are expected to take place on the 30th June 2025 via Microsoft Teams. Slots will be confirmed via the messaging portal on e-Tenders.
If you would like to participate in the Preliminary Market Engagement you can do so via eTendersNI, CfT ref 5986529, where you can obtain a copy of the questionnaire and the messaging system will support any expressions of interest in relation to the Phase 2 meetings.
Please note this is not a call for tender. This engagement is for information gathering only. Participation in this engagement will not impact your ability to submit a tender when the tender opportunity is published.
- Contract starts180 days ago1 May 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published5 Jun 2025, 14:38 BSTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender