Photo: Outsourcing Pharma

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

The leftist government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) owes about 10 billion pesos to the pharmaceutical industry for drug purchases and distribution processes carried out by the country’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing (Insabi), and to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) .

“The debt to the industry is more than 10 billion pesos,” said Enrique Martínez Moreno, vice president of Mexico’s Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation Institute (Inefam), on Monday, Feb. 28.

“Because the government uses multiple purchasing processes for distribution and logistics, there are many lags that have led to significant gaps in communication and payments to suppliers”

Mexico’s National Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Canifarma) Director Rafael Gual said that at least 6 billion pesos of the government’s outstanding debt correspond to its 186 members.

The other 4 billion pesos is owed to the UNOPS by Insabi and the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

Last year, the AMLO government decided to dismantle the Insabi and UNOPS purchasing systems and opted to acquire medicines through direct acquisitions, leading to countless delays in payments, said Inefam’s Martínez Moreno.

“We are going to continue to see delays in logistics and distribution.”

Preliminary data collected by the Inefam revealed that in 2021 Mexican public health institutions acquired just 1.078 billion medications, 37 percent less than the 1.7 billion pieces required to operate.

And throughout 2022, Inefam predicted that medications shortage will increase, reaching a 50-percent dearth.