Friday, July 31, 2020. With the legal reform that opens the door to the importation of medicines, this Friday the federal government will sign an agreement with the United Nations for the acquisition, in better conditions, of medicines, vaccines and medical equipment, announced President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. At the same time, he informed that a public company will be formed that will be responsible for the distribution of these products as of August 15.
This means breaking the monopoly that existed of companies that had control in Mexico, sold drugs at high prices, of poor quality and with frequent shortage problems
. It will be through a global call, drawn up by the UN, how its acquisition will be processed, in which all companies in the world may participate, including laboratories in Mexico, except those with a bad record.
He stressed that the agreement It is very important for transparency, because it is no longer the government that buys, it will be the UN
. Even with the signature, the first order will be attached, “because we don’t want to continue wasting time. I no longer want medicines to continue to be lacking, giving rise to manipulation, misinformation, that children with cancer are not supported. All this has a real part and another closely linked to political manipulation and vested interests, because they were ‘bordering’ on the purchase of drugs.
#VideosLaJornada The federal government signed an agreement with the @UNOPS from #HIM-HER-IT for the acquisition of medicines, medical supplies and vaccines through public international tenders that will guarantee a better price and maximum quality. pic.twitter.com/2uEYgZWq9y
– La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) July 31, 2020
He announced that David León, who until yesterday was in charge of the National Civil Protection Coordination, will be responsible for directing the new drug distributor. He explained that the acquisitions made on a global scale will reach national ports or airports, where the company will have offices to organize the redistribution to health centers throughout the country.
–
It’s starting from scratch, because you didn’t have a distributor, everything was privatized, everything was contracted, the government was like a facade, if anything they were offices to sign contracts. Everything, everything was subrogated
.
He asserted that this is part of the actions to consolidate the health system, which is a priority and to provide free health services: Of course what we want is to improve the service, because it is not to say: It is free, but I do not have medicine, take the prescription and go buy your medicine. That is what we want to solve.
He mentioned that the consolidated purchases made through the UN – from all federal agencies and the states that joined – will cover vaccines, including those produced to deal with Covid-19. He recalled that Mexico promoted an initiative so that there would not be a concentration of drugs in some countries, that is why when new pandemic vaccines begin to be tested and distributed, we will request special treatment
.
López Obrador considered that for now there is a lot of speculation around the vaccine because recently a company announced that it was very advanced in the investigation, which caused its bonds to rise in the stock market. They made a lot of money with the pure news, then it became known that they were not so advanced but they had already made a profit
.
–
–
