Public Procurement in Addressing Public Health Challenges: Key Learnings from WHO-WIPO-WTO Webinar

The World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) jointly hosted a technical webinar on 3 July 2025 to discuss the pivotal role of public procurement, including pooled procurement, in advancing global, equitable, and timely access to health technologies. This collaborative event, part of the organizations’ trilateral cooperation, aimed to strengthen the capacity of law and policymakers by deepening discussions on critical issues at the intersection of public health, intellectual property (IP), and trade.

The discussions emphasized that sound public procurement is not merely an administrative function but a strategic lever necessary to address health challenges globally.

The Foundations of Effective Health Procurement

Effective public procurement procedures are essential for ensuring that health products and technologies are accessible to populations. Key learning points regarding fundamental requirements include:

• Strategic Importance: Access to medical technologies in many countries is primarily driven by public procurement, as pharmaceuticals are often provided through public funding or subsidies. Procurement is identified as a strategic lever within the WHO Roadmap on Access to Medicines 2025-2030 to enhance affordability, availability, accessibility, and acceptability for health products.
• Information and Planning: Successful procurement depends on access to quality and up-to-date information on health product markets.
• Efficiency Metrics: To ensure efficient systems, procurement must rely on acquiring quality medical products in a timely manner, in the required quantities, and critically, at affordable prices. This is crucial given the often large health sector expenditures.

Procurement as a Driver of Innovation, Local Manufacturing, and Resilience

The webinar highlighted that the role of public procurement extends far beyond obtaining the best value for money. It serves as a mechanism for fostering broader economic and public health goals:

• Innovation Driver: Public procurement is considered a key driver of innovation in the healthcare area. When executed soundly, it can foster technology transfer, boost local manufacturing capacities, and strengthen Research and Development (R&D) capacities.
• Strategic Use of Tenders: Well-designed, pro-competitive tenders are essential. These tenders can be used strategically for rewarding R&D efforts, preventing monopolies, and improving access to necessary products.
• Supply Chain Stability: Sound procurement contributes to supply chain resilience. Recent experience has underscored the international importance of global supply chain stability.
• Case Study: National Strategy (Indonesia): Indonesia strategically uses public procurement as a key instrument to drive national innovation and industrial development, primarily by boosting local production, ensuring market access for domestic products, and strengthening collaboration among stakeholders.

Leveraging Intellectual Property (IP) and Trade in Procurement

To effectively manage global health challenges, a cross-disciplinary approach integrating IP, procurement, and competition frameworks is crucial.

• IP and Access: IP may significantly influence access, pricing, and innovation. It provides information on who holds rights to key technologies (patent landscapes) and helps in assessing the impact of issues like data exclusivity on competition.
• IP Management: To optimize results, it is essential to conduct IP due diligence early in procurement processes. Furthermore, there is an imperative to build capacity for IP management within procurement agencies and foster public-private partnerships around IP.
• Trade Benefits: Combining pooled public procurement (which implies larger orders) with international trade agreements (such as the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement 2012) offers significant advantages. These agreements provide market access guarantees that can attract international suppliers offering competitive prices or superior quality. While trade agreements facilitate market access needed for international suppliers to establish production facilities, pooled procurement helps generate the sustained demand necessary to keep these facilities operational.

Lessons Learned from Pooled and Regional Procurement Mechanisms

Experts showcased various pooled and regional procurement initiatives, demonstrating practical strategies for improving public health outcomes:

• PAHO Revolving Fund (Americas): This mechanism utilizes pooled procurement, which consolidates reliable and predictable demand from member states, to enable countries across the Americas to access quality vaccines, essential medicines, and health products. In response to COVID-19, the Fund was reoriented to support innovation, technology transfer, and local manufacturing.
• Gulf Joint Procurement Program (GCC): This program has developed efficient decision-making processes for multi-country pooled procurement. Measures have been taken to promote local manufacturing, using procurement to develop local industries. As a result of these efforts, the Gulf region recorded 74 pharmaceutical factories and 140 medical supply factories in 2024.
• EU Joint Procurement (HERA): Established based on lessons from COVID-19, this mechanism ensures equitable access to essential health products among member states on a voluntary basis, supplementing national initiatives.
• African Context: Public procurement plays a critical role in national health strategies in Africa, accounting for an estimated 40% of health spending in many African countries. Regional economic communities (such as EAC, SADC, and ECOWAS) are crucial in fostering collaboration, and the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism was established in 2024.

Conclusion

The webinar served as a significant output of the ongoing trilateral collaboration between the WHO, WIPO, and WTO. These organizations organize capacity building and technical assistance activities focused on current issues related to innovation and access to health technologies. The core objective is to strengthen the capacity of policymakers and experts in member governments by facilitating access to expertise, data, and evidence, thereby supporting more informed decision-making in the complex nexus of public health, trade, and IP.

Source: webinar