Ángeles Cruz Martínez
La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, October 31, 2024, p. 17
The federal government formalized the rules for the consolidated purchase of medicines and healing materials with the designation of the Ministry of Health (Ssa) as responsible for planning contracts and preparing the diagnosis of needs of public health institutions.
Meanwhile, Biological and Reactive Laboratories of Mexico (Birmex), which in December 2023 received the presidential mandate to coordinate acquisitions, will carry out market research and bidding processes with the new government.
Birmex also maintains its responsibility for the distribution tasks of the supplies, which will be delivered by the suppliers in the megapharmacy located in Huehuetoca, state of Mexico. From there, deliveries will be made to clinics and hospitals of the Mexican Social Security Institutes (IMSS), Security and Social Services of State Workers (Issste), IMSS-Wellbeing, the National Health Institutes and the Federal Reference Hospitals. .
As reported a few weeks ago by Raquel Buenrostro, head of the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP), this federal agency is responsible for issuing the guidelines for the consolidated purchase, which were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation and yesterday came into force.
Allocation to Birmex
The presidential agreement was also published in the Official Gazette, which modifies the previous one of December 2023 where Birmex was assigned responsibility for the entire purchase of medicines.
In the new document, the leadership of the process is reestablished for the Ssa, through the Undersecretary of Integration and Development of the Health Sector, headed by Eduardo Clark.
In this area, the requirements raised by the health institutions will be reviewed and with their approval, Birmex will begin the consolidated contracting procedures, after market research.
The SFP determined in the guidelines that the parastatal company will ensure that there is more than one supplier of each medicine or input, in order to promote economic competition and achieve the best conditions for the government.
Birmex must verify the stocks of pharmaceutical products and suppliers on a national and international scale, as well as identify prices based on information provided by the institutions participating in the consolidated purchase, public and private organizations, manufacturers in the country or abroad or with a combination of information sources.
The guidelines indicate that quotes must include the costs of the products, the deadlines for their manufacturing, delivery time and transportation rates to central, state warehouses or health units.
Meanwhile, the presidential agreement states that the Ssa is responsible for issuing and implementing the national policy for the supply of medicines and health supplies, for which it may request the opinion of the General Health Council.
