Sanofi voluntarily gives up winning bid for hepatitis vaccine supply

Sanofi Pasteur Korea has voluntarily withdrawn its bid for supplying hepatitis A vaccines to the military, as the company failed to meet the qualification after winning it by offering about 20 percent lower price.

Sanofi Pasteur Korea voluntarily withdrew from the hepatitis A vaccine tender after winning the bid with about 20 percent lower price.

The second-highest bidder is undergoing review for the public procurement after Sanofi Pasteur left the competition, industry watchers said.

Sanofi Pasteur was the first pharmaceutical company that participated in the tender directly and won it, not using drug distributors as agents, but failed to put it through till the end, they said, The company won the bid with a 19 percent lowered price than the basis last Thursday.

Forty-six pharmaceutical distributors participated in the tender, but Sanofi Pasteur beat them.

The qualifications set by the Public Procurement Service include credit rating, quality control, and delivery capability.

An official at a distribution company said that most prescription drugs are supplied through distributors. In the case of vaccines, however, pharmaceutical companies directly took part in the tender, threatening distributors' existence, the official added.

“We have voluntarily given up the winning bid as we failed to meet the qualification set by the Public Procurement Service,” an official of Sanofi Pasteur Korea said. “We cannot disclose the details of the public procurement bidding as it could affect the ongoing public tender.”