More than 80 percent of the medicines and medical supplies used in Mexico are imported, despite the fact that the national pharmaceutical industry represents a market worth more than $3.3 billion. Alejandro Svarch, director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS-Bienestar), stated this Friday when presenting a technical assessment of the country’s loss of productive capacity in this strategic sector.
At President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s morning press conference, Svarch explained that Mexico has lost much of its pharmaceutical sovereignty due to past decisions, especially the elimination of the so-called “plant requirement” in 2008, during Felipe Calderón’s administration. This measure, he said, allowed pharmaceutical companies to sell to the government without having production in the country, which weakened the national industry.
“Of the 146 manufacturing branches involved in drug production, Mexico is primarily involved in packaging: cardboard and paper. In other words, we don’t produce the drug, but rather the box it comes in,” Svarch explained at the National Palace. The analysis was based on an input-output matrix prepared by ECLAC in 2023, which shows a drastic drop in the Mexican pharmaceutical industry’s participation following the elimination of the plant requirement.
President Sheinbaum emphasized that the goal is to reverse this trend. She recalled that a decree has already been issued requiring the existence of domestic production plants as a key criterion for the next public procurement tender for medicines. “Our goal is to recover the country’s pharmaceutical industry,” she stated. She also emphasized that the liberalization of patents will allow for more generic medicines to be produced in Mexico, both in the public and private sectors.
Svarch explained that, with a consolidated industry, Mexico could take advantage of the release of some 385 patents that are about to expire to manufacture generics, which would mean significant savings. “A generic drug can be five times cheaper than a patented one, and it fulfills the same therapeutic functions,” he stated.
As an international example, he cited the case of Brazil, which in 2008 adopted an industrial policy opposite to Mexico’s and now produces nearly 90 percent of the medications used in its universal health care system.
Source: jornada
