NHS: Drugs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve NHS medication procurement processes.
Answered by Dr Zubir Ahmed
The Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) is part of the NHS Medicines Value and Access Directorate and establishes the commercial arrangements to enable the purchasing of medicines prescribed in National Health Service hospitals in England. The MPSC manages a number of Medicines Framework agreements that define how to ensure continuity of supply for:
- generic medicines including newly available generic medicines used in hospitals;
- branded medicines, biosimilar medicines, and intravenous fluids; and
- blood products and dose banded chemotherapy and flu vaccines for hospitals.
The MPSC constantly review the commercial pipeline to ensure procurement strategies are fit for purpose, promote resilience in the supply chain and achieve value for money for the NHS.
Since the introduction of the new Procurement Act in February 2025, each procurement strategy has been reviewed to understand what process, including the new processes now available under the new act, would be most effective to use. The MPSC is currently working to implement value-based procurement into the broad portfolio categories to move the focus to achieving value, rather than just lowest price, whilst ensuring continuity of supply.
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