Who is a buyer or buy-side entity?
A buyer or a buy-side organisation includes Clinics / Corporations / Companies / Group Purchasing Organisations (GPOs) / Hospitals that purchase medical devices, consumables, pharmaceuticals, and medical services for delivering and supporting patient care. In most countries, this includes a mix of public and private sector organisations.
How many buyers are there worldwide?
In the 196 countries of the world, there are approximately 3Mn buy-side entities (excluding corporations and companies) that provide 22.9Mn hospital beds worldwide.
Who is a supplier or supply-side entity?
A supplier or a supply-side organisation includes Pharmaceutical and MedTech manufacturing companies, distributors and importers of pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and healthcare services, stockists, and import/export entities in the global pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumables trade.
Does Vamstar aim to bring widescale price erosion to medical device prices?
No. Vamstar aims to improve the profitability for not only buyers, but also for medical product and service sellers as well. By removing inefficiency and waste, sellers can retain and even increase profitability in spite of their sometimes lowering their selling prices. Lower selling prices tend to be a concession sellers are willing to entertain as a result of their being able to lock in longer dated contracts and avoid ad-hoc buying from buyers that now actively use the Vamstar platform. Buyers on Vamstar must take delivery (unless specifically agreed with a supplier otherwise) of all those items that they contract to purchase over Vamstar. Hence, whilst there is a risk that prices may be negatively impacted by the move to a digital channel, smart suppliers have realised that the trade-offs made result in most instances in higher profit margins overall.
What differentiates Vamstar from other well-known marketplaces in the consumer goods space?
Prices are only visible to buyers but not to other suppliers. Vamstar allows suppliers to add their discount structures to the marketplace. Prices visible to purchasers depend (for the most part) on the volume (number of units) to be contracted, thus eliminating the need for lengthy quantity discount negotiations. In addition, Vamstar has integrated digital negotiation-specific processes, chat, and project management functionality that drastically reduces the time required to conclude a contract.
Are pharmaceuticals also available to contract over the Vamstar marketplace?
Yes. Pharmaceutical products, MedTech devices, medical products and instruments, as well as all consumables and furniture procured by health institutions are available on Vamstar. Services related to those products can also be contracted over the marketplace.
What are the key terms to which the contracting parties (supplier and buyer) agree in the contract concluded via Vamstar?
All contracts concluded via Vamstar are based on the Vamstar General Terms & Conditions (“GTC”), which define the rights and obligations of the contracting parties. The contracting parties (the procuring and the supplying institution) accept the GTC anew each time a contract is concluded and essentially undertake to purchase or supply certain quantities (number of units) of an item at a certain price (GBP/EUR excl. VAT, including delivery) during a certain contract period.
Can other suppliers see my prices?
No. Vamstar works with virtually isolated rooms. When Vamstar talks about transparency in procurement, it means unlimited comparability and maximum overview on the buyer’s side. Contrary to the situation with well-known marketplaces in the consumer goods market, at Vamstar not all users can see everything. The prices of a supplier can only be viewed by this supplier as well as by all buyers. Similarly, purchasers cannot see the conditions under which other healthcare providers have procured the same product from a supplier.
What price is being shown when I look at the price matrix after uploading a product list in the marketplace?
Domestic suppliers tend to follow different strategies when using the platform. The most common strategy is to provide a catalogue or a single unit list price that is likely the highest price that a product is sold at in the local market to a small hospital. This is so as they do not immediately cannibalise their existing profitability across the client landscape.
Who can sign up to Vamstar’s Marketplace?
The marketplace is accessible to all manufacturers, importers, distributors and suppliers of medical products, implants and services as well as hospitals, retirement homes and medical practices (healthcare providers). It is even possible for healthcare providers to place products on Vamstar to sell them to other healthcare providers.
Can I promote or advertise products on Vamstar?
Yes, suppliers can select to feature products on the homepage of the marketplace or promote products through Vamstar’s various news channels, i.e. regular newsletters and social media announcements.
As a supplier, how will I know who is making a request?
In the case of an offer request, healthcare providers can decide whether they want to make themselves visible to suppliers or remain anonymous. Experience shows that suppliers are more reactive and create more attractive packages when the procuring party makes itself visible. This approach is now followed by the majority of procuring users.
Does Vamstar allow parallel importers to participate on the platform?
At the direct referral of hospital participants, Vamstar has allowed a small number of parallel importers to participate on the platform. These importers all have onshore domestic warehousing as well as sales and service support on offer to their healthcare provider clients. Vamstar does not facilitate or support offshore suppliers seeking to import products to the domestic market.
Which individuals are allowed to close contracts on the platform?
Each organisation elects appropriate users that are able to undertake the contracting process on Vamstar on their behalf. It is the responsibility of the respective organisations with user logins to manage and update Vamstar when users leave or need to be added.
To what extent does Vamstar take responsibility for an order/execution after it has been placed on the marketplace?
Vamstar is not a party to the contracts closed over the marketplace between buyers and sellers and thus is not legally responsible for supplier or buyer performance in accordance with the contracts executed. That said, the Vamstar team is highly motivated to ensure positive user experiences among it’s users and hence will do all it can to support users with questions, complaints or non-performance raised to it’s attention by one or other contracting party. Vamstar will also rigorously seek to ensure compliance by users with the platform General Terms & Conditions (“GTC”) and will take appropriate actions in relation to any breach of the GTC by a user.
Is Vamstar’s digital marketplace only available in London?
No, it is available in 70+ markets at this time. Pilots are being discussed and planned in other countries at this time as well.
Does Vamstar have plans to expand and how will the pricing work?
Yes, Vamstar continuously expands the marketplace to other geographies. Each existing supplier user will be contacted in advance and will then be free to decide which products and prices to publish for another geography. Prices for one geography will not be visible in another geography.
How does Vamstar secure my proprietary data?
Any information provided by a user, such as prices, conditions and existing customers or suppliers, is kept confidential from third parties in general and direct competitors in particular, unless the company declares corresponding co-users as potential buyers and communicates this to Vamstar management in writing.
In addition, all user, product and discount structure data is secured in accordance with the following standards: