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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

The Mexican government’s supply plan for medicines and other medical supplies for 2021 only covered what the system required for four months, warned the National Pharmaceutical Institute (Inefam) on Thursday, Nov. 11.

Each month, Mexico’s public health sector needs between 140 and 150 million items of drugs and supplies, representing about 1.8 billion items a year, Inefam said in a report.

As of Nov. 5, it said, the federal government had delivered just 221.4 million items this year, barely enough to meet the system’s consumption for a month and a half.

By the end of the year, it will deliver an additional 670 million items, making a total of scarcely a little more than a third of what is required for the year.

“On average, the system requires around 150 million pieces of drugs per month,” said Inefam Director Enrique Martínez.

“But it is not meeting that demand.”

Between a United Nations mass purchasing program and the government’s own drug purchasing program, Martínez said the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) had contracted more than 1.5 billion items so far this year, but these items have not been delivered to public hospitals and clinics.

“Even if they do arrive at the end of the year, there would be a sudden glut that would cause distribution problems, probably followed by another period of shortages,” he said.

Martínez said that the AMLO government’s reluctance to contract directly from pharmaceutical companies has caused a bottlenecks.