MEXICO

On July 29, the United Nations Office for Projects and Services (UNOPS) together with the Institute of Health for Wellness (INSABI in Spanish) published a report on the joint purchase of medicines carried out in 2021. There they detail the outcome of the tenders that included oncology drugs and indicate that the consolidation of the action plan for the supply of the second half of 2022 and future years is in process. Likewise, on August 5, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS in Spanish) held the event “Advances in the Digitalization Process” where it announced that, with the aim of becoming a reference for the World Health Organization (WHO), it will create a digital monitoring center to detect counterfeit drugs and prevent their commercialization. This mechanism would begin to operate in the medium term.

The report states that around 1,060 drug keys were purchased through international public bidding. It also clarifies that future purchases will be optimized through the application of technological tools to facilitate procurement management. The report is framed in the declarations of the new head of the SFP, Roberto Salcedo, who promised to promote an oversight mechanism to ensure transparent and efficient procurement processes with respect to the purchasing strategy. In this sense, he assured that his objective will be to deepen the bidding mechanism for medicines over the direct awarding mechanism in 2022.

At the COFEPRIS event, the head of the agency, Alejandro Pérez Svarch, highlighted the progress made on the backlog of clinical trials and opinions by the New Molecules Committee (CMN in Spanish), indicating that his administration’s priority is to speed up the process by which the molecules obtain this approval. It should be recalled that such approval is necessary to be able to initiate the process of obtaining the sanitary registration. He also announced the construction of a digital health surveillance center to detect counterfeit drugs in the market, which he hopes will become the main WHO collaborating center in the Americas on the subject.