Research · Updated: October 21, 2026 · 7 min read

Medical tenders in Uzbekistan: half of Health Ministry procedures fail

Medical tenders in Uzbekistan come down, above all, to a single buyer. Between 24 August and 20 October 2026, 137 best-offer selections and tenders for medicines, consumables and medical equipment were published on etender.uzex.uz, worth 1.06 trillion UZS, and 80% of that money belongs to the Health Ministry's Procurement Center. Of its procedures that have already closed, 32 of 53 failed. Taking into account the lots still under evaluation, and not counting repeat announcements twice, roughly half fell through. We look at why, who wins, and what a supplier needs so as not to be screened out before prices are even compared.

Data from Tanlo and etender.uzex.uz as of 21 October 2026. Methodology is at the end of the article.

What is being bought, and for how much

Medical lots on etender are large: the typical starting price is 2.05 billion UZS, and only 9 of the 137 lots are under 100 million. Purchases are made in two ways: best-offer selection (otbor, a simplified competitive procedure; bids are accepted for about a week, with a zakalat, or bid deposit, of up to 3%) and tender (2–3 weeks, deposit of up to 5%). A budget-funded customer must hold a tender if the contract is worth more than 6,000 BRV (base calculation amount, 440,000 UZS since 1 September 2026), i.e. 2.64 billion UZS. For more on how the procedures differ, see our article "Auction, tender, selection and the e-shop".

The largest lot of the period was reagents for the maternal and child health service, at 113.9 billion UZS. Next came medical devices for nephrology (78.1 billion), electrocardiographs for the regions (76.3 billion) and PCR reagents for the blood service (67.3 billion).

The main buyer: the Health Ministry's Procurement Center

95 of the 137 lots were announced by a single customer, the state institution "Procurement Center" under the Ministry of Health (Xaridlar markazi; on lot pages it appears as "Согликни саклаш вазирлиги хузуридаги Харидлар маркази"). It accounts for 850.7 billion UZS. The Center was set up by Presidential Resolution PP-408 of 29 November 2024 on the basis of Uzmedimpex, and runs centralized purchasing for medical institutions on orders from the Ministry of Health, for example under the haematology, oncology and haemodialysis programmes.

The Center's terms are almost identical across all lot pages:

• Points-based evaluation: the technical part carries 60% of the weight, price 40%.
• Bid deposit: 2% in selections and 5% in tenders. On a 10 billion UZS tender that is 500 million. Losing bidders get it unblocked once the winner is chosen; the winner gets it back after the contract is signed. If the winner refuses to sign the contract, the deposit is forfeited (Article 63 of the public procurement law).
• Advance payment: 15% (in 67 lots) or 30% (in 28).
• Final payment: within 90 days (in 94 of 95 lot pages).

The technical threshold: where intermediaries are screened out

The most important thing on the Center's lot pages is the technical pass mark. Compliance with the technical specification earns 10 points, while the minimum for admission is 11 or 12. The rest has to be made up through authorization from the manufacturer, a CE (MDR) or FDA certificate, a shorter delivery time, or service capability in Uzbekistan.

Manufacturer authorization appears in the criteria of 89 of the Center's 95 lots. In 69 of them it is stated outright: if a bidder is not the manufacturer itself and has not attached proof of authority from the manufacturer, it is excluded from the procurement. Points for CE or FDA certificates are provided for in 61 lots. Without these documents your bid will be rejected before prices are compared, however low your price.

What we know about the failed procedures

"Failed" on etender means no winner was determined. Under the public procurement law (Articles 61, 68, 69), a selection or tender fails if fewer than two offers are submitted or fewer than two meet the requirements; a tender also fails if the commission rejects all bids. The public lot pages do not show how many bids came in for a particular lot, so the exact reason for each failure cannot be named. But the picture is as follows:

• Selections fail more often than tenders. At the Center, 24 of 34 closed selections and 8 of 19 tenders failed. Selections are the cheaper lots (typically 1.2 billion UZS) with a week to prepare. Most likely, many suppliers simply do not have time to obtain the authorization and documents.
• Other medical customers see fewer failures: 8 of 31 closed procedures. These are hospitals, research centres and district medical associations.
• Failed lots come back. 57 of the 137 announcements (42%) are not the customer's first attempt: the lot page links to previous procedures. If only one bidder or none turns up to a tender, the law requires it to be repeated on the same terms (the commission may change them only with justification). After a failed selection, the customer may announce a new one or choose a different procedure.

Who wins, and by how much they cut the price

For these lots, the exchange's register of deals holds 34 entries with a winner, worth 232.7 billion UZS. 17 of them belong to the Health Ministry's Center. The typical reduction from the starting price is 17%, but the picture is shaped by two very different groups:

• 9 of the 17 deals were won by non-residents: in the register they have a foreign registration number instead of a TIN (judging by the numbers, companies from the EU, the UK, Kazakhstan and the UAE). That is 42.3 billion UZS, 30% of the total. They cut prices deeply: typically by 26.5%. Eight of the nine lots were drugs for haematology and onco-haematology.
• Local companies won 8 deals, and in five of them they cut the price by no more than 3.4%.

Beyond competitive procedures, since 2025 the Center has been entitled under PP-408 to sign direct contracts for original medicines, with manufacturers or their official distributors, and for reagents for closed-type laboratory systems. Such purchases are not included in these figures.

If you are a small distributor

Lots from other medical customers are an easier place to start. There were 42 of them in the period, with a typical starting price of 1.5 billion UZS. The deposit in 39 of the 42 lot pages is 1–3%, and in 28 the final payment comes within 30 days at most. Small purchases by hospitals in the e-shop are worth watching separately: they are not included in this sample.

Requirements checked for everyone

All 137 lot pages carry the same qualification set: resources to perform the contract, the right to enter into the contract, no overdue tax debts, no bankruptcy, no entry in the Unified Register of Unscrupulous Contractors and no debts in the database of the Bureau of Compulsory Enforcement. 112 lot pages additionally ask for an anti-corruption declaration, and 110 for a declaration of no conflict of interest or affiliation. We have covered how to stay off the register of unscrupulous contractors separately.

Registration and licensing

These requirements come from the Law "On Medicines and Pharmaceutical Activity":

• Medicines must be registered in Uzbekistan: purchasing and wholesaling unregistered medicines and medical devices is prohibited (Article 19). Wholesale trade in medicines requires a pharmaceutical activity licence (Articles 16, 19).
• Medical devices and medical equipment are cleared for use after state registration (Article 12). No licence is needed for wholesale of medical devices (Article 16).

Local manufacturers get a head start. Since 1 April 2026, in purchases by budget-funded customers, a preference of 8–15% is applied to the lowest price of an imported product, depending on how many domestic manufacturers take part (Presidential Decree UP-17, para. 12). The Center's lots on etender are treated as budget procurement. Domestic-manufacturer status must be confirmed, and for how the preference is applied in points-based evaluation, check the lot's documentation.

What to do before the next lot

1. Request authorization from the manufacturer for your company now, without waiting for a lot.
2. Build a product dossier: registration certificate, CE (MDR) or FDA certificates if you have them, the technical passport and instructions for use.
3. Do the maths: the deposit (2% or 5% at the Center), the exchange fee, and up to 90 days' wait for final payment. How to calculate it is explained in our article "How much money you need for a tender".
4. Read the scoring criteria before you bid: the lot page states plainly what earns points and what will get you excluded.
5. Watch for repeats. A failed lot is usually announced again, so prepare for the next attempt.

Medical lots on Tanlo are collected in the "Medicine" section (in Russian). New procurements are sent to Telegram, and the AI breakdown of each lot page shows the scoring criteria and bidder requirements in advance.

Methodology

We took all etender.uzex.uz lots from 24 August to 20 October 2026 that Tanlo classified under the "Medical equipment" and "Medicines and consumables" subcategories, and manually removed 18 misclassifications: building materials, food, bed linen, a lift, a heater, industrial instruments, installation works. Medical services were not counted. Statuses, deposit, advance payment, payment period and scoring criteria were taken from the public lot pages on 21 October 2026. "Closed" means procedures with the status "protocol generated", "failed" or "cancelled by the customer" (84 lots); another 34 are open and 19 are awaiting evaluation. Not counting twice the lots that have already been re-announced, 19 of the Center's 38 closed procedures failed. Deals and price reductions come from the etender register of deals as of 20 October; the e-shop, auctions and direct contracts are not included in the sample. A "typical" price or discount is the median: half of the values are lower and half are higher.

FAQ