Real-time pharmacy data to include sales of both prescription medications and over-the-counter products.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has a requirement for the provision of Real-time pharmacy  data to include sales of both prescription medications and over-the-counter products. 
	
The purpose of this Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) is to signal the government's intention to award a contract for these services to:
	
Contractor name: 	Rx Canada 
Contractor address: 	6711 Mississauga Road
		Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2W3
Estimated contract period:		October 15, 2013 to March 31, 2014
Estimated contract value:		$276,301.50 
	
Before awarding a contract, the government would like to provide an opportunity to other suppliers to demonstrate that they are capable of satisfying the requirements set out in this Notice, by submitting a statement of capabilities during the 15 calendar day posting period.
	
If other potential suppliers submit a statement of capabilities during the 15 calendar day posting period, the government will proceed to a full tendering process on either the government's electronic tendering service or through traditional means, in order to award the contract.
	
If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a statement of capabilities meeting the requirements set out in the ACAN, a contract will be awarded to the pre-selected supplier.
	
Background
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has a requirement to monitor sales of pharmacy prescription medications and over-the-counter products with the intention of identifying illness (influenza-like illness, acute gastrointestinal diseases) earlier than traditional surveillance methods. In order for the data to be useful in supporting detection of health aberrations and public health interventions, daily sales data from at least 85% of stores and 85% of health regions should be provided within 24 hours and no later than 96 hours from data of sale and at the level of the Forward Sortation Area (FSA) of the store.   
	
The work will involve the following: 
The contractor must provide through a secure FTP site daily transmission of sales of prescription and OTC sales:
	
Prescripton sales data to include the following data elements: provided by forward sortation area of store
Number of prescription medications dispensed
	Drug Identification Number
	Name of Medication
	Extended units (number of tablets or volume prescribed)
	Prescription category
	Anonymized Chain
	Dispense date 
	New or Refill indicator  
	Patient Age (continous variable)
	Patient Gender 
	Province of store
	Health Region of store
	Forward Sortation Area of Store
	Date data loaded into data base 
	
	Over-the-Counter Products provided by forward sortation of store
	Anonymized Chain 
	Anonymized Store 
	Transaction date 
	Quantity sold 
	raw volume by category
	standardized counts by category
	Province of store
	Health region of store
	Forward Sortation of Store 
	Date data loaded into data base
	
	A Quality Assurance summary must accompany each daily data file outlining the completeness and timeliness of the data set (proportion of expected volume for day of week; number or proportion of stores and health regions included).     
	
	 
	
	Minimum Essential Requirements
	Interested suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to meet the following specified requirements must submit a statement of capabilities clearly demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirements.
	
	1. The proponent must clearly demonstrate within their proposal that they have the capacity to provide two data streams: sales of prescription drugs and sales of Over-the-counter (OTC) products and that the stores providing the data are representative of at least 85% of the health regions in Canada.  Bidders may choose to provide a list of Chain Retail Drugstores and respective number of stores by Health Region for which data would be available.
	
	2. Prescription sales data must include line listings of:
	•	J01– Antibacterials for Systemic Use 
	•	J05 Antivirals
	•	R01 Nasal Preparations
	•	R03 Respiratory
	•	R06 Antihistamines for Systemic Use
	
	Data provided must be at the forward sortation area of store, and include health region and provincial geo-locators, date of transaction, age and sex of prescription holders, and Chain name or number.  Bidders may choose to provide a sample dataset of prescriptions dispensed and accompanying variables.
	
	3. Over-the-Counter data set must include aggregated counts of OTC sales by store across every category. Data provided must include category, sub-category, forward sortation area of store, health region of store, province of store, date of transaction, date loaded. A sample dataset with all variables may be provided by the bidders. 
	
	The essential categories are respiratory, gastrointestinal, allergy, and analgesics.
	
	4. The Proponent must clearly demonstrate within their proposal that they have that capacity to deliver the required sales data on a daily basis in a timely fashion. Sales data from at least 85% of the stores and 85% of the health regions must be provided within 48 hours to 96 hours of the store transaction 
	
	5.  The Proponent must clearly outline the metrics that will be used for quality assurance report to accompany daily data. Data quality parameters must address completeness of data (proportion of stores reporting sales transactions in the previous 96 hours and representativeness of the store coverage (proportion of health regions represented in the reporting period).
	
	6. The proposed price must not exceed an amount of $34,537.68 per month inclusive of all other expenses and taxes. 
	
	
	
	Justification for the Pre-Selected Supplier
	Although there are several other companies that manage and provide pharmacy sales data, to date Rx Canada is the only supplier with demonstrated ability to provide pharmacy sales data with the temporal and spatial resolution required for an early-warning system.  Historically, competitive contracting strategies (RFP-2011) for the purchase of pharmacy sales data have resulted in only one bidder, Rx Canada. Prior to 2011, posted ACANs were not contested or unsuccessfully contested. 
	
	Intellectual Property
Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract will vest in the Contractor.
		
	
	Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business
	This requirement is NOT set aside in accordance with the government's Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business. 
		
	Statement of Capabilities
	Suppliers must submit their statement of capabilities in writing to the Contract Authority identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this Notice.