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Lower Cost Lead to Booming Growth for Generics

Rafael Maciel - AMEGI
President

STORY INLINE POST

Fri, 09/20/2019 - 17:54

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Q: How can generics become a tool to support access to healthcare services in Mexico?
A: Generics and biosimilars have brought significant savings to patients. Previous administrations have invested in generics, which amount to 86 percent of prescriptions in the public sector. This has resulted in significant changes to the entire market. Generics have also gained significant strength in the private market, especially as recent public tenders have bought fewer products than the population needs. Tenders for 62 percent of the products were deserted, which will create a shortage of medications at public institutions that will force patients to head to the private sector.
Q: What regulatory changes would AMEGI like to see?
A: We are lobbying on two fronts. The first is with COFEPRIS and IMPI because the linkage process for patents is extremely unclear and inefficient, which has hurt the local pharmaceutical industry. Through linkage, many patent protections have been extended for two extra years. The existing regulations of both institutions are not explicit for manufacturers and although they offered changes, we have not seen this to date. The second is through proposals sent to the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies to explain the linkage process and propose better alternatives that can be applied in a more efficient and transparent way. Our objective as an association aligns with the president’s goal to increase access to healthcare services and safe, quality medicines.

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