On April 26, the representatives from companies that have participated in the 8-province tender met with Mr. Yu Shili (chu zhang) and Mr. Zhuang Ning, of the Dept of Finance and Planning of MOH on the problems in the tender process.
The attendees are:
Roberta Lipson, Chair of MDF, CEO of Chindex
Jimmy Ip, Medtronic
Lim Poh Lin and Zheng Lin, Boston Scientific
Louisa Lv, Stryker
Susan Xue, St Jude Medical
Xu Ping and Jin Hui, J&J
Irene Liu, Chindex
Mr. Yu and Mr. Zhuang appreciate it that the AmCham companies voice out the difficulties encountered in the tendering process and welcome this type of communication so that they may be aware of them.
Regarding the non-contract signing, no quantity commitment and >30 days payment, etc. in Shanghai and other areas, Mr. Yu said that the core is the 30 days payment commitment, which the hospitals find it hard to commit in the contract. In a document issued by MOH in Jan, it has been suggested quantity commitment for a quarter instead of a year, which could be more doable for the hospitals.
MOH is planning to organize a supervising group to oversee the implementation of the tender, in May the latest. And it welcomes the information feedback from industry.
J&J and Boston also mentioned that besides the 8-province tender, other cities and provinces are also tendering on their own or following the 8-province tender price. In Fujian, the price is requested to be lower than the 8-province tender price, 60-day payment, deposit from 10K to 50K. Price quoting were generally done over phone and there was not a very clear document of rules to follow. In Beijing, there will be 6 tender companies which make the companies have to prepare 6 sets of tender documents, etc. An 8-province tender or a collective tender at least saved lots of logistics work, the companies said.
The increase of workload, decrease of price/margin allow less room for sponsorship of academic exchanges. However, Mr. Liu said that the companies shall voice the difficulties to the associations and also shall look into the legality of various types of sponsorship. Mr. Zhuang expressed some skeptism in this impact of the tender.
Mr. Yu said that they are very concerned of the issues raised by AmCham companies, even though some of them are beyond the control of MOH, e.g. local authorities, non-MOH-affiliated hospitals, they will try to communicate and influence. So he suggests that the companies do a fact-collection of the tender, both 8-province and other individual tenders, i.e., where, how and the impact to the

companies, etc., and communicate to MOH.
Mr. Yu again appreciates the dialogue, and encourage us to let them know, which is the only way they know there are problems.