The purchase of Insabi that is no longer consolidated

President López Obrador said yesterday, November 8, that by the middle of next year we will already have a first-class health system. It is clearly a lie, because at least as far as the supply of inputs is concerned, there are no elements to hope that it will be resolved and there are elements to foresee that the shortages and shortage problems will continue. And this is clearly evidenced by the call for consolidated purchase that Insabi recently issued and that is clearly insufficient to fully cover the demand.

And speaking of lies, another was that of the head of Insabi, Juan Ferrer, who told deputies that the purchase of medicines had already been made when it is not true. It is just underway.

The call issued by Insabi on November 7 was for suppliers to prepare their offers and anticipate the supply of medicines required to cover the supply of the public sector in the following two years, that is, 2023 and 2024.

It will already be a process operated entirely by the Mexican Government -without UNOPS- and it will be done using, now, the Compranet platform that had ceased to be used for these purchases and that allows more transparency as it happened in previous six-year terms.

In the previous market investigation, Insabi had planned to acquire 1,001 keys, but in the end it is requesting only 618 keys with just over 2,000 million pieces, which implies an amount estimated by Inefam at 84.2 billion pesos. Those amounts would be fine if the purchase was only for the 2023 supply, but they are announcing that it is a purchase for 2023 and 2024. That is, they are insufficient amounts if they are being considered for two-year coverage. In addition, according to the analyzes of Enrique Martínez, from Inefam, the call issued failed to include 138 keys for generic drugs and 245 for patent or single-source drugs that are remaining in the air.

Additionally, some 300 drug codes acquired by UNOPS are being left out. One point here is that UNOPS made acquisitions whose contracts could be extended for up to two years; the question is whether deliveries of these acquisitions will be allowed to continue for 2023 or will be tendered again. It is part of a whole mess that is leaving the early cancellation of the contract with UNOPS.

Total that the supposedly consolidated purchase of Insabi will not cover the entire demand. And one of two, either they will continue to make direct awards or they will make another consolidated purchase halfway through. But since the Insabi is not characterized by reporting on its processes -and it is most likely that they themselves are not clear about it-, we will know as the march progresses.

Another problem is that the Insabi process is once again very tight on time, since the clarification meeting will be on November 17, the opening of proposals on the 24th and the ruling on December 1, so that the signing of contracts will be will give in the course of December. According to the pharma clock, once the contract is signed, each laboratory requires 4 to 6 months to manufacture the drugs, which means that the distribution of this consolidated purchase will start from April to June. Meanwhile, in the first months of 2023, it is necessary to foresee shortage problems of many keys, unless the medical institutions have foreseen it and have covered themselves with certain inventories, which sounds difficult given the characteristic disorganization of the health sector in the present. six-year term For now, it is known that Pemex is making its own purchases and we are told that Sedena too, which completely breaks with that objective of making a consolidated mega purchase to generate savings. The savings have occurred rather thanks to the reduction in volumes and quantities of what was acquired.

maribel.coronel@eleconomista.mx