So far, the Megapharmacy of Wellbeing (Mega Farmacia del Bienestar), promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has failed in its attempt to solve the shortage of medicines in Mexico, due to the shortage of drugs it suffers, since at the moment it only fills 2.7 prescriptions per day.
López Obrador did not fulfill the promise he made on December 29, 2023, the day he inaugurated the Megapharmacy of Wellbeing, located in Huehuetoca, State of Mexico, which by the way at the time of its startup only had 0.9% of its storage capacity.
“That there be a large pharmacy, so that all the medicines are distributed, so that they can reach the most remote towns in our territory. May no one lack medicine, and may those who are sick have the medicine. “It is an important basic need, it is like having food,” said the president at the inauguration of the Megapharmacy on December 29, 2023.
However, the words are gone with the wind, and in reality, today, the pharmacy that only fills only 2.7 prescriptions a day fails, due to the inability to fulfill the promise under which it was created.
The thing is that as of April 29, 2024, the winery has only filled 341 prescriptions, according to the response from Laboratorios de Biológico y Recambios de México, S.A. de C.V., (Birmex).
In such a way that the prescriptions filled by the Federal Center for Storage and Distribution of Health Supplies (Cefedis), the official name of the Megapharmacy, represent only 2.7 daily prescriptions on average, from December 29, 2023, to April 29, 2024.
To give context, in April 2023, the general director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, reported that during 2022, per day, the agency filled 613 thousand medical prescriptions for its patients.
The Megapharmacy has only delivered medications to two beneficiaries of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), 210 to patients of the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (ISSSTE), and 129 to people without social security who are treated in the IMSS-Wellbeing.
According to the registry of the Birmex Logistics Directorate, the “largest pharmacy in the world”, as President López Obrador called it, received 95,297 calls until April 29, 2024.
Of that total, 24,792 were calls without interaction with the personnel who attend the Birmex call center; Another 27,094 calls were not answered because they did not have sufficient information about the patients. Cefedis also received 16,225 calls from people who had previously contacted to request medication, and dialed again to follow up on their request; However, the majority have remained not dispensed.
TYT Newsroom