Infarmed hires legal services to review licensing projects

On December 23, 2020, Infarmed signed a public contract with the law firm Gouveia Pereira, Costa Freitas & Associados, for the provision of legal advisory services in the re-examination of processes of the Inspection and Licensing Directorate. The contract was published on the 21st of January, on the base.gov.pt and has a global value of 53 thousand and 500 euros. 

O contract was awarded to the Society Gouveia Pereira, Costa Freitas & Associados, selected among several competitors, including ABBC-Azevedo Neves, Benjamim Mendes, Carvalho e Associados, BAS – Sociedade de Advogados and Eduardo Serra Jorge & Maria José Garcia Sociedade de Advogados, and refers to “legal advisory services in different areas of law, for the re-examination of several processes of the Inspection and Licensing Directorate / Licensing Unit of INFARMED, IP”

The execution period is 120 days and the contract manager, on behalf of Infarmed, is the Director of the Licensing Unit, Vasco Bettencourt do Espírito Santo Nunes, who is also lawyer and directs the Infarmed's Office of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes. The contract is incumbent upon the contracting entity to strictly comply with the orders, directives or instructions transmitted by the representatives of Infarmed IP, in the exercise of management power on matters relating to the execution of the contractual services.

a) Provide the services, under the terms of Part II of the Specifications;
b) Find out about all the specific aspects and the various legal, regulatory and operational constraints relating to the area covered by the object of the contract, with a view to its proper execution, and it is also responsible for carrying out all the ancillary works that are deemed necessary, in accordance with the specific requirements of the specifications;
c) Ensure all auxiliary means, travel, contacts with other entities and any actions for collecting and processing information aimed at the proper execution of the work.

Cannareporter asked Infarmed if the provision of legal advice services also applies to the review of processes for licensing in the cannabis area.

Hugo Grilo, Infarmed's Press Officer, replied that “the contracting of legal services does not affect processes related to the licensing of activities or products within the scope of cannabis for medical purposes. The contracting of legal services is a common practice in the various public administration services, as can be confirmed by consulting the base.gov.pt . In the specific case, the contracting focuses on the reconsideration of a set of complex processes, to be run in court, exclusively in the area of ​​community pharmacies.”