▲ President Andrés Manuel López Obrador explained that 10 companies monopolized the supply of medicines to the health sector.Photo Jose Antonio Lopez
Emir Olivares and Arturo Sanchez
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday December 30, 2022, p. 13
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador affirmed that all the necessary medicines have already been acquired in the public health system for 2023 and 2024.
In his morning conference at the National Palace, the president pointed out that with this the shortage of drugs generated by companies is overcome corrupt
of politicians who during the neoliberal period monopolized the market in Mexico.
We have made great progress, all the medicines required for 2023 and 2024 have already been purchased, the keys, as they are known, which are required for health centers, for hospitals. We already got ahead with this that was spoiled by corruption, which was the business of politicians and influence peddlers.
He recalled that hoarding was held by 10 companies they don’t even have laboratories; They sold the government 100 billion pesos, and three, 60 billion pesos. They were the ones who campaigned against us that there were no medicines for children with cancer and the entire campaign in the media, because the media were also involved
.
Such was the power of these companies and the corruption to favor them, he asserted, that the federal governments could not sell medicines abroad. It was prohibited by law. We had to make a legal reform and open the purchase to foreign countries, we made an agreement with the UN and we already have the acquisition of medicines
.
Once the amount necessary for the next two years has been purchased, the head of the federal Executive asserted that now it remains to continue with the distribution of the drugs to each medical unit, health center and hospital in the country, including the most remote areas.
López Obrador once again insisted that next year there will be a first-rate and quality public health system, like Denmark’s. He highlighted that in the nine states where the federalization of the sector already operates, through the IMSS-Bienestar program, the average supply of medicines is greater than 90 percent in filled prescriptions.
I hope that by the middle of next year, at the latest, we will already have one of the best quality healthcare systems in the world. It is my commitment, and I know how to fulfill commitments. And progress is being made, facing obstacles because it is necessary to repair facilities, hospitals, it is necessary to count on general practitioners, with specialist physicians.
