Federal Secretary of Health admits there’s a shortage of oncological drugs

Despite the fact that president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has declared many times during his morning conferences that there is no shortage, Jorge Alcocer recognizes the shortage of anticancer drugs. The Secretary of Health justified that the above is due to a slow distribution, which he said “is the Achilles Heel” of the agency under his charge.

MEXICO, (October 27, 2021).- The Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela, acknowledged that there is a shortage of cancer drugs in Mexico.

“Yes there has been a lack of medicine, among the factors that led to it are a wide range of situations, for example, there were complaints associated with the death of children in the Hospital del Niño Poblano, due to the application of chemotherapy with methotrexate and infections hospital facilities related to drugs produced in private mixing plants ”, he pointed out.

Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela

Alcocer Varela recalled that the policy to combat corruption in the supply of medicines modified the purchasing and delivery mechanisms.

“We are committed, we are doing everything we can to improve this so-called last mile in the arrival of medicines to the population that requires it and not to the warehouses that continues to be one of the Achilles heels,” he said.

Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela

He pointed out that various private laboratories failed to comply with the regulations of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), for which reason the methotrexate manufacturing line and other oncological codes were suspended, “for this reason, it was even necessary to suspend seven plants from where the contaminated mixtures that I have mentioned came from ”.

He added that with the acquisition of drugs from South Korea, there are already oncological medicines that are being analyzed and certified by Cofepris for their use in Mexico.

Source: El Universal