A new study called “Tendering generic drugs: What are the risks?” was commissioned by the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Assocation (CGPA). According to the study, tendering generic drugs in Canada could cause many negative consequences such as potential drug shortages because of less redundancy in the drug supply system, less manufacturing of generic drugs in Canada, less customer services offered by generic suppliers to pharmacies, the closure of some pharmacies, and others. The study discusses how tendering removes the incentive for generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to mount legal challenges to invalid or non-infringement patents on brand-name drugs. The authors argue that tendering has important implications and is only one of the approaches that can be used to procure generic drugs.
