Lack of coordination in medicine purchases persists: CANIFARMA

In the federal government, there is still a lack of coordination and planning between health sector agencies to present consolidated purchases of medicines, which causes shortages, acquisition of products at higher prices and increases consumption in the private sector, said businessmen in the pharmaceutical sector.

In an interview with La Razón, Rafael Gual, general director of the National Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry (CANIFARMA) in Mexico, pointed out that not even all the contracts to meet the needs of the second half of 2022 have been covered.

“You are right. Unfortunately, the tender was made in February, the contracts began to be signed in June, and most of them were signed, but there are some that are still pending, for which UNOPS (the United Nations Office for Project Services) competed; we have the problem that, even, there have been duplicities in Social Security, INSABI is tendered on its own, also ISSSTE”, warned the business leader.

“Each entity buys on their own, which has caused duplicities; that is, double inventories of some products and missing others; in short, it is not possible to have a figure on this case, because there is also a lack of transparency in what is being bought; they are direct awards, we are not talking about a proper tender”, warned Rafael Gual.

In addition to the lack of clarity in the contracts, there is the problem that the current Government has changed the purchasing model up to four times, despite the fact that it has only been responsible for purchasing the medicines in 2020, 2021 and now 2022, warns Juan de Villafranca, executive president of the Mexican Association of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (AMELAF).

Source: Entre Veredas.