On August 22th, within the framework of the IX Binational Meeting of Ministers Chile – Argentina, the health representatives of both countries, Adolfo Rubinstein (Argentina) and Emilio Santelices (Chile), began negotiations for both countries to design a mechanism for the purchase of medicines.  Santelices’ idea is to enable a line of negotiation to articulate the acquisition of Argentine bioequivalents at a lower price than those currently imported by Chile. Negotiations will continue in the coming months, and the agreement is expected to be finalized with the signing of a specific agreement by Presidents Sebastián Piñera and Mauricio Macri.

In this context, Santelices stressed his interest in generating agreements to purchase bioequivalent medicines through the chilean National Supply Center (Cenabast) from Argentina. The objective is that the eventual negotiations will result in a reduction in the price of medicines entering Chile.

In this regard, Santelices said that one of the issues addressed with Minister Rubinstein was to lower prices of drugs in Chile. “We have identified an enormous window of opportunity, given that in Argentina the pharmaceutical industry is very important and it has many bioequivalent products that we are seeking to incorporate rapidly in our country,” he said.