In order to promote access to drugs for their respective populations, the governments of Colombia and Venezuela prolonged measures to facilitate drug importation January 8. Although the initiatives differ from each other (they range from tax exemptions to bureaucratic simplifications), both were developed by the Executive in order to address a shortage of availability of (especially high-cost) drugs. These policies reflect the growing weight of access to drugs on the region’s political agenda.

In the case of Colombia, President Iván Duque decided by decree to prolong technical regulation on vital drugs not available in the country, approved in 2004. The regulation simplifies and reduces the necessary steps for the importation of this type of drugs; for example, they do not need to have a sanitary registry. It also specifies the procedure that must be followed for the importation of vital drugs for a specific patient, for several patients, and for cases of clinical urgency.

Meanwhile in Venezuela the Executive extended by decree the tax benefits on drug importation until December 31, 2019. Under this, the importation of drugs by public entities and by natural or legal persons are exempted from the payment of the Import Tax so long as private actors purchase them with their own resources. The entity that regulates the tax benefits is the Ministry of People’s Power for Health.