COFEPRIS Warns About Fake Influenza Treatments

This week, the sector has faced more challenges aside from COVID-19, from fake commercialization of drugs to leprosy cases and the strengthening of the influenza season.

Here’s the Week in Health!

NATIONAL

-The Ministry of Health informed that Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Queretaro and Zacatecas are at risk of a second COVID-19 wave.

-The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a cooperation project with Japan from which Mexico will receive economic aid of more than US$5 million. This will be used for the acquisition of medical equipment and other healthcare needs authorities have identified.

-The Ministry of Public Function announced that PiSA and its distributer branch Dimesa have been disqualified from public medicine tenders to supply Mexico City. According to the companies, this is the result of “a process for anesthesia services for IMSS’ Hospital de Pediatría del Centro Médico Nacional de Occidente from 2017.” PiSA and Dimesa were also fined with MX$1.2 million (US$55,700).

-COFEPRIS warned about fake and illegal commercialization of influenza vaccines and treatments. Sanofi was the company that notified this situation to the commission as it identified a vaccine and a suspension of its productions being commercialized in fake lots.

-The Ministry of Health announced 89 registered cases of leprosy during this year. Eighteen states have identified these cases and the ministry is following up each of them to prevent further damage and spread of the disease. 

INTERNATIONAL

-Oct. 19 was International Day Against Breast Cancer, marked to increase awareness of early detection of this preventable, yet lethal, disease that affects 23,000 women in Mexico per year. Here are signs to be aware of. 

-Pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma pledges guilty of selling a highly addictive drug. OxyContin was the name of the opioid drug, which was prescribed as a as a pain reliever in the US and that in 2019 caused a sanitary crisis due to the amount of overdose patients losing their lives to that drug. Prude pledged guilty of fraud and of violating rules of bribery for the commercialization of the drug.

-Authorities in Brazil announced the death of a volunteer of the AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine. The University of Oxford issued a press release where it stated that clinical trials were to continue as they detected no safety concerns. 

-Russia announced its second vaccine development EpiVacCorona, which has demonstrated a 100 percent protection effectiveness against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This result was obtained from their clinical trials on animals.

-According to research by the University of Wuhan, influenza A increases the viral load of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. On a study carried out on mice, they detected more severe lung damage as COVID-19 potentialized infection rates.

-South Korean doctors call Influenza vaccines to stop after 25 vaccinated people have died. Health authorities in the country say that there is no evidence of a link between the deaths and the vaccine.