2023-08-07 06:36:25
Given the shortage of medicines in Mexico, the president of that country, López Obrador, plans to create a pharmacy that has “all the medicines in the world.”
“We are going to propose to the health sector that they have a kind of pharmacy, a warehouse, with all the medicines in the world, in reasonable quantities,” slipped the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in his usual morning conference.
The purpose, according to the Mexican president, is to guarantee that there is never a lack of medicine in the hospitals and health centers of his country. The medicines could be requested from said warehouse and the transport of these could be done by land or air, but how realistic is AMLO’s idea?
«It is very idealistic, because when you look at the operability it is something complex. If, for example, Mexico produced good-quality raw materials, it would be different,” says Colombian immunologist Bladimiro Rincón, from the University of Santander, who also works on projects for Latin America with the Charité University Clinic in Berlin, in an interview with DW. “You can have the largest warehouses in the world, but if you can’t get the supplies to make the medicines, it’s very difficult to make that proposal a reality,” he adds.
The reasons for the lack of supply
Although most countries in the region are suffering from a lack of drug supply, the problem occurs worldwide. In the European Union, for example, many try to go to neighboring countries to obtain medicines that are impossible to obtain in their countries. And the situation is increasingly worrying throughout the continent.
In Germany, the shortage of medicines has caused the closure of more than 120 pharmacies in the first months of the year. In view of this, the German Parliament approved the Medicines Act in June, which aims to ensure that the supply of important medicines, especially for children, is better protected against distribution bottlenecks.
Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. Image: Aurea Del Rosario/AP Photo/picture alliance
One of the main factors in the shortage of medicines would be the dependence on Asian suppliers. “Mainly it is due to the low manufacturing and production of raw materials in the large producers, which are India and China. Its chemicals are the fundamental basis for the formulation of medicines”, explains the Colombian health expert.
The COVID-19 pandemic would also have had an influence on the problem, “when many production lines for raw materials were lost or used for other purposes, and even some plants in the region were closed because they were no longer profitable, as in Argentina”, indicates Rincón.
Basically, the causes of shortages could be grouped into two types: “Due to manufacturing and distribution problems,” Rincón believes. Manufacturing problems would be the most serious because there are many inputs that are in short supply. In the case of distribution chains, they would not be working well, for example, due to the slowness of regulatory bodies to allow a medicine or input to enter the countries.
What are the alternatives to medications?
Among the main drugs currently in short supply are, for example, antibiotics and anticancer drugs. Also some medicines against chronic diseases, for example, of the autoimmune type.
«Aspirin, which is also in short supply, for example, is not life or death. You won’t die if you take it today or in five days. But if an antibiotic, such as amoxicillin, is missing, it is almost life or death. Especially in a child or an older adult who is hospitalized. A treatment against cancer is also very critical because if the patient does not receive treatment he dies ”, insists the specialist.
One of the alternatives would be to use generic drugs. These are so named because they contain the same active ingredient as an already patent-protected preparation and therefore have the same effect.
«The formulation of generic drugs or the release of patents would greatly help to fill this shortage worldwide. With the release or relaxation of patents, it could be produced locally in certain countries of the region that have the greatest capacities. Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or Colombia could produce enough medicines for the rest of Latin America”, Rincón believes.
«And for the medium and long term it could be implemented or start to produce local raw material. A plan is needed to deal with this problem, which is generating a decrease in the quality of life of patients and we are going to begin to see that in figures”, warns the Colombian expert.
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