The Essential Drugs Division of KMSCL undertakes the procurement and supply of generic drugs and supplies by inviting competitive national-level e-tenders. As part of achieving volume based scale of economy, Government directed KMSCL to do the purchase and distribution of oncology drugs for Regional Cancer Centre during 2019-20. Govt. also directed Kerala Medical Services Corporation to establish a single channel mechanism for the supply of drugs & consumables to the three autonomous institutions involved in Comprehensive Cancer care in the State of Kerala ie., Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) and Malabar Cancer Centre. Subsequently the Corporation started procurement of oncology and other drugs to such institutions from 2020-21 onwards.

Category of Tenders

• Tender category I &II :- Includes drugs and drugs require special cold storage conditions
• Tender category III-VIII:- Includes Medical Devices, Blood diagnostic kits and reagents, Consumables, Disinfectants & Chemicals, Surgical Sutures and X-ray films & accessories.
• Anticancer drugs :- Drugs required for the treatment of cancer
• Speciality drugs:- High value drugs which does not included in the Essential Drug List, used for the treatment in Specialty or Super Specialty hospitals

Equipment Procurement 

The rapid advancement in the technology of Medical Equipments, increasing complexity of the equipment, the manufacturers moving towards closed type of equipments, and to provide importance to after sales services of the equipments procured, the Equipment section was started in KMSCL from the year 2010.

The primarily objective of the equipment section is to procure equipments for the institutions under Directorate of Health Services and Directorate of Medical Education through various funds. The total life cycle cost of the equipment is considered for the evaluation of the lowest bidders. The division procures small equipment like weighing machine to high end equipments like MRI Scanners, Linear Accelerators, etc through transparent tender process. All tenders invited are e- tenders in the portal of Govt. of Kerala. All major equipments procured will have 3 to 5 years comprehensive warranty period and the rate for Comprehensive Annual Maintenance Contract is fixed for a further period of 5 to 7 years. The minor equipments will have a warranty period of 1 to 2 years depending upon the cost of the equipment. The rate of proprietary consumables / reagents required for the functioning of the equipment is fixed during the tender process. The equipments which requires specialized infrastructure for the installation are done through the suppliers of the equipments by including as 'turnkey' in the tender process itself.