A micro-company with just one employee registered at least until March and share capital of R$1.3 million was awarded a contract worth R$285.8 million, with no need for bidding, with the Ministry of Health. The agreement, signed in April, is to supply 293.5 thousand vials of human immunoglobulin, a blood-derived medicine, that is, produced from blood, used to improve the immunity of patients affected by a series of diseases, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome.
The volume of resources, combined with the size of the company Auramedi, from Goiás, unknown in the pharmaceutical market, draws attention. As is the name of the company it represents nationally, the Chinese Nanjing Pharmacare. The contract is signed by the ministry with the Asian company, and Auramedi signs as representative. The information is from Metrópoles.
Nanjing is also represented in Brazil by Panamerican Medical Supply, which has as one of its partners Marcelo Pupkin Pitta, a businessman in the sector who was arrested in Operation Vampiro, in 2004, and again in 2007. The investigations revealed suspicion of fraud in bidding at the Ministry of Health, precisely in purchases of blood products, including immunoglobulin.
Auramedi’s headquarters is a house in a business center in Aparecida de Goiânia, the metropolitan region of the capital. Metrópoles was there last Friday (22/9), during business hours, but the place was closed. A neighboring trader interviewed by the report stated that he had never seen movement at the pharmaceutical company.
Still in August, the report spoke to an employee at the business center – he confirmed that an employee sometimes goes to Auramedi’s headquarters, but usually to pick up orders that are left in the administration. On the internet, the company’s presence is also minimal. Auramedi doesn’t even have a website.
The company and the only partner, Fábio Granieri de Oliveira, are defendants for administrative improbity in a popular action in the Court of Justice of Pará. The complaint, received by the Judiciary, indicates suspicion of fraud in a contract, also with exemption from bidding, during the Covid-19 pandemic in the municipality of Parauapebas. Despite this, the company has no restrictions on participating in tenders or signing contracts with the Public Authorities.
One of the elements in the process is the fact that Fábio participated in the price request requested by the city hall as a representative of Auramedi, but also signed in the same way for one of the other two competitors. The company was created in 2013, but the businessman became a partner in May 2020, when the firm went from having a share capital of R$50,000 to R$1.3 million.
The change in Auramedi’s corporate structure, with Fábio as the sole partner, took place in May 2020, three months after the company was given as payment for a debt to three other people. Before that, Fábio worked at the pharmaceutical giant EMS, according to what he said.
Data from the Transparency Portal indicate that Auramedi began participating in federal agency auctions from October last year and received small amounts for the supply of medicines, with payment notes of up to R$6,200.
The largest amount received by the company to date comes from the contract with the Ministry of Health: R$16.5 million. To obtain the contract, and before receiving a penny, Auramedi paid R$246,600 in insurance worth R$14.3 million, 5% of the contract value, something that is required by law.
Operation Vampire
Both Auramedi and Panamerican, owned by Marcelo Pitta, say they represent the Chinese company Nanjing, which is a trading company — that is, it acts as an intermediary between manufacturers and buyers. Even in this latest process of exempting the ministry from bidding for the purchase of immunoglobulin, the two present themselves as representatives of the Chinese company in Brazil. The report asked Fábio Granieri if he is the exclusive representative, but he did not respond.
Panamerican even supplied medicines sent by Nanjing to the ministry in recent contracts. The report found only one other Brazilian company, from the Federal District, which already said it represented the Chinese company in the past, in 2020. This third company appears as a defendant in the same process in Pará in which Fábio Granieri is a defendant. The report contacted the partner, who asked to respond by message, but did not do so until this publication.
Coincidentally, the lawyer who represented Fábio Granieri in the ministry’s bidding exemption process also acted on behalf of Marcelo Pitta in a 2020 case. The lawyer is from Pernambuco, far from the Federal District and Goiás, where Auramedi is located and where Fábio says live. When contacted, the lawyer claimed that he could not say whether Pitta recommended his office to the company due to the confidentiality of the contracts.
Panamerican even requested a challenge to the bidding exemption process in question, requesting an improvement in the terms of reference. In the request, she alleged unenforceable deadlines for starting delivery; doubt about the quantity to be provided in each delivery; and about the possibility of presenting a proposal in two scenarios (one respecting the schedule, and the other not respecting the schedule).
Despite the request for objection, which shows awareness of the existence of the process, the company did not send a proposal.
Exemption from bidding
The way in which the bidding exemption occurred also draws attention. Starting with the volume of medication. The Ministry of Health could have opened a waiver process to acquire a smaller quantity on an urgent basis, but chose to purchase the equivalent of six months’ consumption without bidding.
Two companies won the price award carried out by the ministry — Auramedi, representing the Chinese Nanjing Pharmacare, and Farma Medical, on behalf of Prime Phama LLC, from the United Arab Emirates, which was responsible for supplying 90 thousand vials in a smaller contract, of R$87.6 million.
The company from Goiás delivered the medicines, but with a delay of up to 35 days. Farma Medical, according to the ministry, has not delivered anything so far — the company owner denies this and says he delivered 30,000 vials in June, but did not send documents proving the service.
The bidding exemption process comes from an imbroglio for the acquisition of immunoglobulin that actually put the supply of the Unified Health System at risk. The story begins in 2020, when, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the product was in missing on the market. Two auctions initiated by the ministry were unsuccessful.
The following year, there was another public dispute, but one of the companies alleged irregularities in its disqualification, and the Federal Audit Court (TCU) suspended it. Subsequently, however, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) authorized the purchase.
After the purchase authorized by the STF, the ministry opened a new auction in December last year. However, faced with a determination by the TCU that the participation of companies without registration with the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) be allowed, the ministry initiated another process, this time with exemption from bidding, claiming urgency.
The ministry informed that it needed the first installment of medicine to be delivered in April, to avoid shortages. In the end, the first part was only delivered in mid-June.
The ministry highlighted, throughout the process, the TCU ruling from February this year, in which it determined that the department adopt “the strictly necessary measures to guarantee the stock” of immunoglobulin through, “for example, an emergency contract or an additive term , if applicable”, including the participation of foreign companies with unregistered products.
Anvisa, when authorizing the exceptional import of medicine that does not have health registration, mentions that the unavailability of the medicine on the market has not been proven, but that it understands that the fact does not rule out the TCU’s determination.
Price taking
The Ministry of Health opened price taking on February 27th, with publication in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU), to receive proposals until 11:59 pm on March 3rd. One of the companies was disqualified because it sent the proposal a minute later, at midnight.
The ministry disqualified five others, citing lack of compliance with the notice. The ministry then selected the five proposals with the lowest prices (here comes Auramedi’s after one of the competitors was eliminated) to analyze, and excluded the remaining 10.
The first and second placed teams were eliminated due to the allegation that the product offered was manufactured in India, a country that is not a member of ICH. Apx Health Corporation, which was in second place, filed an objection, highlighting that India is part of the ICH as an observer, and that its proposal could not have been disqualified. The report sought out Anvisa to clarify the issue, but received no response.
The fourth place winner was eliminated because, according to the ministry, she did not respond to the call to send documentation to qualify. This left Farma Medical, which was in third, and Auramedi, which was fifth in the ranking of most advantageous proposals. At all times, Auramedi emphasized that it had enough money to meet the ministry’s complete demand, of 383.5 thousand bottles, and tried to disable competitor Farma Medical.
No registry
Within the scope of the processes, larger pharmaceutical companies registered with Anvisa claimed that there was no justification for waiving the bidding, nor for allowing products without registration with the agency to enter the dispute. When taking the price itself, proposals from companies registered with Anvisa amounted to the equivalent of 82% of the quantity that the ministry needed.
The value, however, would be less advantageous and could reach R$716.8 million, almost double what was committed by the ministry in these two contracts. And, given the TCU’s decision in February, the purchase was maintained with unregistered companies.
The other side
Panamerican was contacted on Friday (22/9), but did not respond to Metrópoles. By phone, an employee informed that the company would not respond to questions.
Fábio Granieri, from Auramedi, criticized competitor Farma Medical, which did not deliver the agreed medicines, and claimed that the information provided by the report is misleading.
“It is surprising that misleading information is being conveyed about Nanjing Pharmacare, as it is devoid of factual basis. Equally unexpected that the necessary emphasis is not being given to Prime Pharma LLC’s contractual breach, which effectively harms public health, irreversibly,” he wrote.
In another eight paragraphs, Auramedi argued that Nanjing complied with the requirements and highlighted the competitor’s problems.
The Ministry of Health informed that the emergency purchase aims to avoid shortages of immunoglobulin and that the acquisition followed Anvisa regulations that deal with criteria for imports on an exceptional basis.
The ministry added that it has so far received 245,842 bottles from Nanjing Pharmacare, nationally represented by Auramedi, equivalent to the first five installments, and that it has already received part of the last installment, scheduled for delivery on 9/30.
The ministry also detailed that the companies hired were in good standing at the time of hiring, “not incurring any legal impediment”.
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