From now on, all public or private health personnel, and pharmacists who want to participate in training related to medications, equipment or medical instruments, inside or outside the country; as well as medicine distributors or whoever wants to promote services or hold health congresses in Nicaragua, is obliged to ask permission from the Ministry of Health (Minsa) who must authorize it, otherwise they will not be able to do so.
This was established by the Daniel Ortega regime, through the circular MS-ANRS-MLRG-0007-04-20-2024, of the General Directorate of Health Regulation (DGRS), of the Minsa, issued on April 20 and addressed to representatives of pharmaceutical distributors, laboratories and national and non-national medical equipment and instrument companies.
The ministerial order, signed by Martha Ligia Rosales Granera, director of the DGRS, establishes that “all activities related to training, product launches, congresses and scientific technical activities, national and international congresses, and any other product promotion, which are going to carried out inside or outside the country and that involves the participation of personnel from the public and private health system, must be known 30 days in advance, and authorized by the Minsa.
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The circular makes it clear that, in the country, under the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, private companies and laboratories that import medicines and medical equipment that are not to their liking will not be able to carry out any activity that could benefit health personnel with new knowledge. scientists and technicians.
Nor can new medicines, equipment or services be imported and promoted without the strict authorization of the representatives of the dictatorship.
The Minsa indicates that “it is up to the General Directorate of the National Health Regulation Authority of the Minsa to receive the information and the request for authorization to respond, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.”
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The Law creating the National Health Regulation Authority (ANRS) was approved by Sandinista deputies in 2021, with the aim of centralizing under a single office the control and collection of all health-related services that are “marketable”, including international cooperation aimed at that sector.
Likewise, this body was designated by the regime to control, evaluate and register the import, export, and marketing of medicines and authorize the import of donations of supplies.