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By KELIN DILLON

The Mexican federal government’s so-called Megapharmacy, a storage warehouse made with plans to house the nation’s government-acquired drugs and pharmaceuticals, is currently operating at less than one percent of its total capacity, says a new report from daily Mexican newspaper El Universal.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) previously touted the Federal Center for Storage and Distribution of Health Supplies (Cefedis) as “the largest pharmacy in the world” with a reported capacity for 280 million drugs.

However, during a press conference held at Mexico’s National Palace on Jan. 19, Cefedis and Biological and Reagent Laboratories of Mexico (Birmex) director Jens Pedro Lohmann Iturburu revealed that the facility currently only houses 2.465 million drugs worth 119.8 million pesos.

Meanwhile, Mexico had designated 196 billion pesos in its 2023 to 2024 budget to buy 3.8 billion pharmaceuticals for the country, 99 percent more than the Megapharmacy currently houses.

The Cefedis has likewise reportedly only filled 67 prescriptions since its inauguration on Dec. 29, 2023, despite receiving 6,364 drug requests from citizens.

The Megapharmacy has subsequently resorted to ordering requested medications from Mexico’s public health services like the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers and the Mexican Social Security Institute to fulfill pharmaceutical orders, said a Birmex representative.

The Cefedis supply failure comes amid the López Obrador administration’s ongoing medication shortage issues, which failed to fulfill 42.7 million prescriptions for beneficiaries between 2019 and 2022.