Health products procurement carries a risk that most commercial purchasing does not: the cost of a compliance failure is not a late delivery, it is a product that cannot be used safely. Before any commercial negotiation begins, five questions determine whether a supplier is worth negotiating with at all.
1. Is the certification current, and does it cover this specific product?
WHO prequalification, CE marking and FDA approval are frequently quoted at the company level when the certification in question applies only to a specific product line or manufacturing site. Ask for the certificate, check the scope and the expiry date, and confirm it matches the exact product being quoted — not a related one.
2. Can the supplier document its cold-chain and storage conditions end to end?
A certified product that has been stored or transported outside its required conditions is no longer the product that was certified. Ask for temperature-monitoring records for the specific shipment lane being proposed, not a general policy statement.
3. What happens if a batch fails quality control after delivery?
A supplier’s answer to this question — before it happens — reveals more than any brochure. Look for a specific, written recall and replacement procedure with defined timelines, not a general assurance.
4. Who are the supplier’s other institutional buyers?
References from other INGOs, UN agencies or ministries of health in comparable operating contexts are far more informative than references from commercial retail buyers, whose quality and delivery requirements are usually different.
5. Is the commercial offer separable from the technical offer?
Negotiating price and negotiating specification are two different conversations. A supplier unwilling to lock technical specifications before discussing price is signalling that the specification itself may still be negotiable — which is where quality risk usually enters.
The negotiation only starts here
None of this replaces a proper technical evaluation or a signed non-remuneration declaration protecting the buyer’s interests. But a supplier that cannot answer these five questions clearly, in writing, before a single price is discussed, has already answered a sixth: whether it is ready to be held accountable after the sale.