Healthcare strengthens cooperation with the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to further expand public access to medicines
The Minister of Health of the Nation, Carla Visotti, today signed a letter of intent with the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Argentina (CAPDROFAR) with the aim of moving forward in mutual cooperation to further expand public access to medicines and strengthen the public drug policy in our country, empowering the Argentine pharmaceutical industry.
In addition, it aims to promote a dialogue on cooperation between the state and the pharmaceutical industry and to create joint actions that improve healthcare standards, focusing on patients with exclusive public coverage, ensuring the supply of nationally produced active pharmaceutical ingredients.
After celebrating the signing of the agreement, Vizzotti stressed that “this is in line with our vision of being able to play a strategic role in relation to the population’s access to medicines.” In this sense, he emphasized that “the obligation is to maintain this role and to make the pharmaceutical industry visible and improve.”
In addition, the minister argued that “these actions are part of a very interesting reformulation of the state, which is related to the articulation and integration between different areas, such as industry and production.”
In this regard, the President of CAPDROFAR, Ariel Plaza, thanked Vizzotti for the opportunity of this meeting and noted that “in the Chamber, we have a lot of desire to do and build connections so that these successes are possible.” As such, he stressed that “we are realistic, but we must also be ambitious because we have the capacity, technology and knowledge to carry out the proposed actions.”
In turn, the chief of staff, Sonia Tarragona, stressed that “this is a project that will allow us to explore the issues that we want and can do to make it a virtuous association that will become something concrete.”
For her part, Secretary for Access to Health Sandra Tirado indicated that “we are committed to ensuring that these commitments continue over time because it is a priority issue at the level of health and productivity.”
Common activities detailed in the letter of intent include the holding of technical working groups composed of experts in the field from each party and the exchange of information on drug-related health issues.
In addition, it includes efforts to highlight the work being done under the Health Self-Sufficiency Plan prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in search of a comprehensive strategy aimed at achieving health self-sufficiency in the region, with a particular focus on strengthening the capacity to produce and distribute vaccines and medicines.
In the same vein, it envisions advancing a permanent public-private collaboration framework on this issue, in coordination with the National Agency for Public Laboratories (ANLAP). Within this framework, the Ministry of Health will provide CAPDROFAR with a list of active pharmaceutical ingredients that it considers of interest in expanding access to medicines throughout the country, and CAPDROFAR will assess the possibility of their production at the national level in accordance with its technical, technological and operational capabilities.
The event was also attended by Deputy Minister for Medicines and Strategic Information Natalia Grinblat; Remediar Program Coordinator Maria Eugenia De Biasi; Nicolas Chiarante, coordinator of the Bank for Special Medicines; National Agency for Public Laboratories (ANLAP) President Ana Lea Allemand; and Deputy Administrator of the National Agency for Medicines, Food and Medical Technologies (ANMAT) Valeria Garay.
