Special import, emergency and shortage tenders
Purchases where buyers accept medicines that are not registered locally, or buy urgently to cover a shortage.
These tenders are often less crowded than routine national tenders, because the usual barrier, a local marketing authorisation, is lifted or relaxed. In return they ask for proof of quality from elsewhere: registration in the country of origin or with a stringent regulator, WHO prequalification, a GMP certificate and a CoPP, and the ability to deliver quickly. Each entry below is checked against the buyer's official notice.
Want to bid, or need a product for one of these?
Send the product, strength, quantity and destination. We match manufacturers whose product is registered in a reference market and can supply the documents a special-import permit needs: GMP certificate, CoPP, certificate of analysis, and translated or over-labelled packs where required.
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Open now
| Closes | Tender | Route | Country | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Nov 2026 30 days left |
Framework for unlicensed imported medicines (wave 2), North East and Yorkshire NHSRef. C475795 (2026/S 000-096479) | Special import / unlicensed | United Kingdom | Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, for the North East and Yorkshire NHS Pharmaceutical Purchasing Consortium |
Looking for routine tenders as well? The tender calendar lists all 13 open medicine, API and vaccine tenders.
Recently closed
Medicines invitation Med 9/2026/D (shortage medicines) (Iraq, Shortage purchase, closed 25 Oct)
The four kinds of special-route purchase
How regulators allow unregistered supply
Most regulators have a legal route for supplying a medicine that is not registered locally when patients need it. The names differ, but the logic is the same: a licensed importer or hospital applies, the product must be approved somewhere credible, and the permit is limited in time or quantity.
- United Kingdom: unlicensed medicines may be imported by MHRA-licensed importers to meet the special needs of individual patients, with notification to the MHRA.
- United States: during a shortage, the FDA can allow temporary importation of a foreign-approved version of a medicine.
- Australia: the TGA can approve supply of an overseas-registered medicine under Section 19A while the Australian product is unavailable.
- Canada: Health Canada allows exceptional importation of certain drugs in shortage, and the Special Access Program for individual patients.
- Latin America: regulators such as ANVISA in Brazil and INVIMA in Colombia have procedures for importing unregistered or "vital, not available" medicines for health institutions.
- Gulf, Asia and Africa: many health ministries issue special import permits to hospitals or importers for unregistered medicines, usually against a hospital request and proof of registration in the country of origin.
For more detail by country, read our global guide to named-patient import programmes, or see which medicines are short right now on the drug shortage radar.
What buyers usually ask for
- Registration in the country of manufacture, or approval by a stringent regulatory authority (for example the EU, US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Canada or Australia), or WHO prequalification.
- A GMP certificate for the manufacturing site, a Certificate of a Pharmaceutical Product (CoPP), and batch certificates of analysis.
- Delivery lead time and remaining shelf life, often with a minimum of 60–75% shelf life at delivery.
- Packaging and labelling in an accepted language, or over-labelling and translated leaflets supplied by the importer.
PharmaTradz is not the buyer and does not run these tenders. Information is taken from the official notices and may change; the buyer's documents always prevail. Regulatory routes are summarised for orientation only; check the current rules with the regulator concerned.
