INSABI detects 51 companies that distribute counterfeit medicines to the health sector

The general director of the Health Institute for Welfare (INSABI), Juan Antonio Ferrer Aguilar, assured that the unit identified 51 companies that distribute counterfeit medicines to the public sector and evade taxes.

During a work meeting with the Social Security Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, the official pointed out that there is no problem with purchasing medicines but with the distribution.

“We have no problem buying medicines. We have everything that the dependencies asked for,” he emphasized.

However, he said that between the purchase of the medicines and their reaching the patients, “there are nine invoices,” that is, “one company that sells to another, and this one to another, and another and another, until reaching nine to evade taxes and introduce counterfeit drugs.”

In this sense, he stressed that on the instructions of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the list of the 51 companies detected with “bad sales practices of apocryphal medicines” is published on the page of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris). and tax evasion.

“And there is also an express instruction from the president for Cofepris, where he tells him to redouble efforts to continue detecting all these companies that evade taxes and insert counterfeit drugs into the health sector. We go with everything in that part”, he emphasized.

In this sense, I have explained that INSABI carries out the purchasing and acquisition planning processes with the information provided by the social security institutes and other institutions. I have argued that it is false to buy medicines that do not have a health registration: “We do not buy any medicine that has not been reviewed and approved by Cofepris.”

Ferrer highlighted the savings of 19 billion pesos for consolidated purchases, acquisition of medicines, and healing material and said that for this year, the supply of all drugs is guaranteed since 2 thousand 518 million pieces were acquired, which They are going to pay 100 billion pesos until the end of December.

He explained that they were awarded to 302 suppliers from 27 countries worldwide and that until mid-August, 98 percent had been delivered, that is, 1,509 million 108 thousand pieces that correspond to 60 percent of the annual calendar.

He specified that the Army, the Navy, the National Guard, and Birmex support the distribution of medicines in the 32 states and that as of this year, the distribution model is being changed so that it is the parastatal company Birmex that distributes all the medicines at the national level.

He mentioned that work is already underway on the 2023-2024 consolidated purchase, and there are work groups to update the catalog of supplies and medicines. He stressed that for the first time, the country will make a biannual purchase; “With this, fixed prices are sought, avoiding an inflationary impact, that is, we are going to ensure prices until 2024.”