Tender

Concession for Printing and Marketing of the British Pharmacopoeia

  • Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

F24: Concession notice

Notice identifier: 2021/S 000-006764

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-02a1dd

Published 1 April 2021, 12:56am



Section one: Contracting authority/entity

one.1) Name and addresses

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf

London

E14 4PU

Email

purchasing@mhra.gov.uk

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code

UK - UNITED KINGDOM

Internet address(es)

Main address

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/medicines-and-healthcare-products-regulatory-agency

one.3) Communication

The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at

https://mhra.bravosolution.co.uk/

Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address

Applications or, where applicable, tenders must be submitted electronically via

https://mhra.bravosolution.co.uk/

Applications or, where applicable, tenders must be submitted to the above-mentioned address

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

National or federal Agency/Office

one.5) Main activity

Health


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Concession for Printing and Marketing of the British Pharmacopoeia

Reference number

P5801

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 79970000 - Publishing services

two.1.3) Type of contract

Services

two.1.4) Short description

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the Agency) is an Executive Agency of the Department of Health. We protect and improve the health of millions of people every day through the effective regulation of medicines and medical devices, underpinned by science and research.

The British Pharmacopoeia (BP) is the official collection of standards for UK medicinal products and pharmaceutical substances. It is produced by the British Pharmacopoeia Commission Secretariat of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, in accordance with regulation 317(1) of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, and makes an important contribution to public health by setting publicly available standards for the quality of medicines.

The Agency requires the appointment of a Concessionaire to be responsible for the printing, publishing, distribution, marketing and selling of the BP and BAN publications.

two.1.6) Information about lots

This concession is divided into lots: No

two.2) Description

two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)

  • 72413000 - World wide web (www) site design services
  • 79342000 - Marketing services
  • 79811000 - Digital printing services
  • 79824000 - Printing and distribution services

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UK - UNITED KINGDOM

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

The British Pharmacopoeia (BP) is the official collection of standards for UK medicinal products and pharmaceutical substances. It is produced by the British Pharmacopoeia Commission Secretariat of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, in accordance with Regulation 317(1) of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and makes an important contribution to public health by setting publicly available standards for the quality of medicines.

Since 1864, the BP has been providing authoritative standards for medicinal products and pharmaceutical substances and it continues to play an important role in the standard-setting process worldwide. Now used in over 100 countries, the BP remains an essential reference for all individuals and organisations working within pharmaceutical research and development, manufacture and testing around the globe. All monographs and requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) are also reproduced in the BP.

The BP is published annually with three in-year updates, currently in both hardcopy and electronic formats; the latter is available as a download product as well as accessed via a single-user licence or a multi-user license arrangement. In addition, there is the requirement for the publication of the British Approved Names (BAN) which provides the official, non-proprietary, or generic names given to pharmaceutical substances, published annually.

The Agency requires the appointment of a concessionaire to be responsible for the printing, publishing, distribution, marketing and selling of the BP and BAN publications. A core part of the requirement is the provision and maintenance of a website, which operates as a portal to access the electronic formats of the BP, as well as acting as a source of added value material and a sales platform for the BP chemical reference standards, orders for which are fulfilled by the Agency. The link to the current website is https://www.pharmacopoeia.com/, and this web address is owned by the Agency. The legacy publication content is available as an XML dataset with a DTD and shall be provided to the service provider.

The concessionaire would have responsibility for business development and marketing of the product, with the strategic approval of the Agency, and also shall be expected to invest in the services to deliver continuous improvement and innovation throughout the life of the contract. The concessionaire will also need to carefully manage sales and distribution of BP publications to our global user base which is currently conducted through established reseller networks.

The Agency wishes to award one concession contract to one contracting party; collaborations with other organisations to bring together the range of expertise (via sub-contracting/consortium arrangements) would be acceptable, with the concessionaire ensuring effective and seamless delivery. The appointed concessionaire shall retain the revenue from the service/sales as its fees minus the payment of agreed royalty fees to the Agency. The concessionaire shall have exclusivity on the sales of the BP and BAN. Pricing strategies shall be reviewed and agreed by both parties. This contracting approach is the same as the current set-up. We expect to award and agree a contract September 2021 to facilitate sufficient lead time for implementation and the publication of the BP 2023 in August 2022.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Concession is awarded on the basis of the criteria stated in the procurement documents

two.2.7) Duration of the concession

Duration in months

60

two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds

The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No


Section three. Legal, economic, financial and technical information

three.1) Conditions for participation

three.1.1) Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

List and brief description of conditions, indication of information and documentation required

See procurement documents for information

three.1.2) Economic and financial standing

Selection criteria as stated in the procurement documents

three.1.3) Technical and professional ability

Selection criteria as stated in the procurement documents


Section four. Procedure

four.2) Administrative information

four.2.2) Time limit for submission of applications or receipt of tenders

Date

28 April 2021

Local time

12:00pm

four.2.4) Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted

English


Section six. Complementary information

six.1) Information about recurrence

This is a recurrent procurement: No

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

London

Email

purchasing@mhra.gov.uk

Country

United Kingdom