WE WILL SET SUSTANABILITY CRITERIA IN 75% OF OUR TENDERENG PROCEDURES

Amgros' first ambition for more sustainable supplies set clear goals. Now we have updated it and set even more ambitious climate goals.

One of the major goals in our adjusted ambition is that, from 2026, we are to apply sustainability criteria in 40% of the EU tendering procedures we announce that are not Medicines Council procedures. We will continuously increase this so that, in just six years, in 2030, we apply sustainability criteria in 75% of EU tendering procedures. 

- Delivering on the environment and climate is an important task for us at Amgros. For this reason, we have strong focus on how we can contribute to a greener future. Setting sustainability criteria in our tendering procedures is an important tool. The more clearly we can communicate, the easier it is for our suppliers to organise their business. Ultimately, it’s crucial that we get them aboard in the green transition, says Flemming Sonne.

Amgros started including environmental criteria in tendering procedures four years ago. It has been a learning process in many ways. Both for us and for suppliers. We have also developed an IT system to manage and evaluate tenders with sustainability criteria efficiently. This is why we have now reached the point where we can set a goal for the extent to which sustainability criteria are included in our tendering procedures. We have set the goal at 75% by 2030.

Another new goal in our ambition for a more sustainable supply of medicines is that, from 2025, we will collaborate with the Danish Medicines Council to develop models for sustainability criteria in tenders based on treatment guidelines - and discuss their application.

- We’re delighted that both Amgros and the Danish Medicines Council are focusing on sustainability. These are complex tendering procedures, so it requires us to think carefully and work closely together and with suppliers, says Amgros CEO Flemming Sonne. 

The reason why Amgros has now updated ambitions for more sustainable supplies is that the Regions recently published their Joint Regional Strategy for Green Hospitals. 

Amgros has been given an important assignment as a "lead" in the area of reducing carbon emissions from medicines and hearing aids through tendering criteria. For this reason, we have now set a target to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2035 compared to 2022. And to do this through requirements and criteria in our tendering procedures and through collaboration with the Regions and others. In this way, Amgros' ambition for more sustainable supplies is fully in line with the strategy for green hospitals. 

- The state of the climate is no secret. Therefore, it is also gratifying to see how we are constantly getting better at working together on the climate agenda across the medicines sector. And that we're willing to set both demands and goals. There’s no doubt that this is what it will take to make a difference in the area," concludes Flemming Sonne.

There are differences between tendering procedures under which the medicine is processed by the Danish Medicines Council and other tendering procedures for medicines. 

The main difference is that the Danish Medicines Council makes a specialist assessment of whether or not the medicines should be recommended as standard treatment. If there are comparable (analogous) medicines to these medicines, a cost analysis will also be prepared to calculate the cost of using these comparable (analogous) medicines. With outset in Amgros' prices, the value of the cost analysis is added to the price of the medicine, after which a medicine recommendation can be published. This is done through a collaboration between the Danish Medicines Council Secretariat and Amgros.

There is no assessment from the Danish Medicines Council for other tendering procedures for medicines. The winner of each tendering procedure can be used at hospitals, and the costs of the various treatments are not calculated centrally. Nor are any recommendations made by the Danish Medicines Council for these procedures.