Biolyse slams Medbuy reasons for contract denial
An official at Biolyse Pharma remains frustrated after a debriefing on why his company lost a bid to supply a cancer drug to southern Ontario cancer centres.
Montreal-based multinational Accord Healthcare Ltd. recently won the contract to supply the drug Paclitaxel, with Medbuy, a London, Ont.-based hospital buying group, managing the bidding.
“This bidding process was not fairly undertaken,” said Claude Mercure, production manager at Biolyse on Welland Vale Road in St. Catharines.
The company was formally debriefed by Medbuy about the decision this week.
“We were the lowest bidder, also we scored the highest for reliability,” said Mercure.
“Then it was all very subjective like they don’t like our packaging. Nothing based on standards or anything else like that.”
Mercure insists the packaging concern cited was “not standard” and shouldn’t have disqualified Biolyse based on request for proposal terms.
As for any possible appeal: “I don’t have much faith in the appeal system,” Mercure said. “I just don’t … it’s evident at the very least, it is not acceptable what they did.”
The three-year contract would be worth more than $1 million, depending on volumes.
Mercure said he was hoping for “somebody in government to have some feeling of fairness, justice (and who tells Medbuy) to be fair and transparent and then we will have a chance.”
Lesley Cornelius, director of business development and communications for Medbuy, earlier told The Standard Medbuy bases its decisions on consultation with its health-care organizations, who play an active part in scoring the proposals. The process follows guidelines set out by Ontario’s Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive.
In an e-mailed statement Tuesday, Cornelius said Medbuy treats “all suppliers in a fair and equitable manner through a competitive process run on behalf of our member health-care organizations.”
She said the RFP was publicly posted on Biddingo, as per Medbuy’s standard practice, “to ensure a fair, open, and transparent bidding process that adheres to all provincial procurement regulations.”
Cornelius said there were “multiple respondents who submitted proposals to supply Paclitaxel,” which were subsequently evaluated by Medbuy and its members.
The drug is used to help fight ovarian, breast, lung, pancreatic and other cancers.
Cornelius said criteria for the oncology RFP was based on “financial and non-financial criteria, and in-use validation.” Non-financial criteria included factors such as safe handling features, product labelling, packaging, supply continuity processes and general service offering. In-use validation considers safety factors pertinent to patient and/or occupational health.
Mercure said Biolyse, now at about 23 employees, “will do its best, we’ll go down fighting …”
“I have other contracts, and hospitals I supply drugs to.
“I’m still the dominant supplier (of Paclitaxel) in Canada.
“But it could mean Biolyse will stop anything resembling development or (additional) research.”
Biolyse spokesman John Fulton said the issue also speaks to potential future problems with the drug ’s shortages, which have happened.
Company president Brigitte Kiecken recently told The Standard Biolyse has had to supply the drug when other companies’ supplies have run out. It’s happened four times.
“In this case, there’s no one looking out for the cancer patient,” said Fulton.
“Medbuy has set themselves up for a drug shortage,” he said.
Should Biolyse close due to losing the contract and “there’s no Paclitaxel, who was looking out for the cancer patient?” “It’s simple logic.” St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik also criticized the Medbuy move, and the province’s role in promoting such buyer groups.
“I appreciate the province is trying to save a dollar here, save a dollar there,” Sendzik said. “But when you create a policy that in essence pushes out business, it’s probably not the smartest (policy).”
The province “should be supporting a company like Biolyse in our community,” he said.
“Let’s level the playing field and give them a percentage of the advantage … they’re Canadian, locally owned, with research and development taking place in Ontario. “That’s the frustration.” Sendzik said he’d advocate “going back to the drawing board” and suggests the provincial Ministry of Health take another look at Biolyse, which “has a complete supply chain, passes all the Canadian requirements … and yet their product isn’t getting into (those) hospitals.”
St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley said he was “disappointed” a local firm wasn’t successful in its bid.
“We hope they’ll continue to bid on anything Medbuy and others put up in requests for proposal,” said Bradley, who was made aware of debriefing details.
“As a local MPP, I’d certainly love to see our people be successful if they meet all the criteria that is established,” he said. “I think what (Biolyse wants) is to see that proper weighting is given to various RFP categories … and I think they feel that on categories where they scored lower, that shouldn’t be given as much weight.
“I think they are also hopeful Medbuy would take that into consideration … the next time they’re putting in a bid like this,” Bradley said. “And I think they’d like individual hospitals that are part of Medbuy to hear their point of view, as well.”
That said, it’s not within the “purview of an elected official to instruct Medbuy on who they must give a contract to,” the MPP said.
“But I can certainly understand the concerns (Biolyse) has.”