They change for the fourth time! purchase of medicines

Mexico City.- The consolidated purchases of medicines and healing materials will have the fourth person in charge so far in this administration: the Ministry of Health (SSA), although the shortage continues.

Since December 2018, the tenders have been controlled, first by the Ministry of Finance, then by the United Nations Project Services Office (Unops) and, subsequently, by the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (Insabi) which, at being in the process of extinction, he can no longer remain in charge.

For three six-year terms, consolidated purchases were in charge of the IMSS.

On October 30, the General Directorate of Material Resources of the Ssa called for a consolidated tender, complementary to those carried out by Insabi for the period 2023-2024.

This is a purchase of up to 328 million pieces of 763 key medicines, and up to 3.9 million pieces of 377 key healing materials, which will be used in 2024.

Fresenius Kabi and 3M, among other companies, asked to clarify whether products acquired in previous Insabi tenders can be used, since several agencies have not requested them, and the contracts will be valid until December 2024.

The IMSS and the new IMSS-Bienestar – which replaced Insabi – will be the largest users, but also the Issste, federal hospitals attached to the Ssa, national health institutes, federal prisons, the Navy, the National Guard and the DIF.

However, the shortage of medicines and supplies in the hospital network still persists and has forced patients to wait for months or even go into debt to get them.

There was even an avalanche of legal claims against the IMSS, the ISSSTE and the Ministry of Health, according to the Radiography Report of the Drug Shortage, published in July. A few weeks ago, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that Birmex and Cofepris signed an agreement to implement the National Medicines Warehouse, a “megapharmacy” that was presented as an alternative to shortages.

The National Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Canifarma) has warned that the shortage in the public sector, close to 27 percent, has not been recovered due to all the changes in the agencies in charge of drug purchases.