In Official Gazette No. 29468-B of this Wednesday, February 2, Cabinet Resolution No. 18 was published, which authorizes the Ministry of Health (Minsa) to buy 54,000 treatments against Covid-19 through an “exceptional” procedure. 19 to the company Pfizer Free Zone Panama.
A budget of 13.5 million dollars was approved to purchase the drug paxlovid, which is co-administered with the pharmaceutical product Ritonavir.
In the aforementioned resolution, which is dated January 25, 2022, the Minsa is authorized to request the Ministry of Economy and Finance to transfer the item for the acquisition of the treatment.
The authorization came into effect on February 2, the day of its publication in the Official Gazette. The resolution has the signatures of all members of the Cabinet Council.
On January 17, the members of the Cabinet Council They approved the Minsa, by exceptional procedure, the purchase of the four treatments for the Covid-19 disease.
This purchase of Paxlovid is part of the direct acquisition of four pharmacological treatments for an amount of 26,506,640 dollars, to face the new coronavirus pandemic.
The drugs molnupiravir, ronapreve and tocilizumab will also be purchased.
It is planned to acquire 2,500 treatments of ronapreve, for 3,500,640 dollars, which, according to Panamanian scientists, is not effective in neutralizing the Omicron lineage.