BIRMEX Joins Forces with Indian Pharmaceutical Company Cipla

Mexico’s Laboratorios de Biológicos y Reactivos de México (BIRMEX) signed a Strategic Partnership and Technology Transfer Agreement with the third largest pharmaceutical company in India, Cipla Limited, informed the Mexican Ministry of Public Relations.

The agreement, which was reached last April when Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard visited India, was announced through a press release on Oct. 10. The visit aimed to improve and strengthen the Mexican public health system. During the visit, authorities of the Mexican public health sector met Deepak Mansukhani, Senior-Director, International Business Development and Strategy, Cipac.

The execution of the commercial agreement focuses on the short-term supply of oncological and retroviral drugs to Mexico, as well as a technology transfer scheme from the Indian company to ensure that Mexican institutions have the correct installations and the capacity to fulfill the demand of these products for domestic use.

Mexico’s public health sector has faced many shifts during the past years, greatly delaying the delivery of several life saving medications. In early August, the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (INSABI) reported that the organization only received 40.89 percent of the medicines requested by the different hospitals in the country, with only 154 million pieces delivered as of July 25, 2022, from the 357 million requested, as reported by MBN.

The responsibilities and capabilities of INSABI, IMSS-Bienestar and other public institutions could also be subject to change following the announcement of a new Decentralized Public Organization (OPD), which will reportedly focus on the administration of public healthcare resources, as reported by MBN.

These changes have been a point of controversy among specialists in the health industry. “The elimination of the Popular Insurance (Seguro Popular) entity in favor of  INSABI, which has not served any purpose at all since it was never able to start. It is unfortunate that today, after three years of discussions and a search for solutions, the decision was made to return to IMSS, adding the burdensome title of ‘IMSS’-Bienestar,” Deyanira Chiñas Ramírez, Commercial Director, T5DC, wrote for MBN.

The public sector’s expenditure in functional health has also decreased during recent years, accumulating a 5.1 percent decrease mainly due to a cut in the budget for subsidies and transfers. SHCP's Public Finance and Debt Report for the first four months of 2022, showed that the Minister of Health had an approved budget of MX$59.84 billion (US$2.92 billion) but it only spent MX$18.7 billion (US$911.35 million).