Breathe
By Nurit Martínez
Since 1804, when a vaccine was used for the first time in Mexico, on that occasion to prevent massive contagions and severe smallpox disease, our country was considered a pioneer not only in the distribution but also in the production of several vaccines in Latin America and today, due to a series of unfair agreements, corruption and omission processes in recent years, we have lost that distinction. "We were in Guatemala and we entered Guatepeor", says a popular saying.
It is not with the intention of singling out our Guatemalan friends or that beautiful country and its contributions, but in the proverbial phrase applies to that which when one tries to flee from danger, from an adverse condition one arrives at a worse condition, according to the Centro Virtual Cervantes.
Until 2022, the Superior Audit Office of the Federation estimated that more than 2,574 million pesos had been invested during the last 16 years to produce the influenza vaccine in agreement with the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, but omission, the "let-do, let-go corruption" meant that not only was not achieved in a PAN government, another PRI government and the first one of the Morenismo, the technological transfer to produce that vaccine, but also in these last years the production of vaccines such as the antivenom against scorpion and snake bites was lost.
This was revealed on the last day of September by the director of Laboratorios de Biológicos y Reactivos de México (Birmex), General Jens Pedro Lohmann, in an interview granted to reporter Ángeles Cruz of La Jornada.
As it seemed, they chose the medium to send the message and nobody noticed it, at least publicly. He said that the certification of good manufacturing practices in the production of vaccines was lost and, therefore, a new novation was sought: to buy and distribute medicines and medical supplies.
It is known that in the new administration there are those who take note of these "rudenesses", cajum, cajum... sorry for these "outbursts", sorry for these stumbles or you name it and try to chart a new course or, better said, correct the path or what is known as "the second floor" of something.
The general was supposed to have arrived in 2021 to this institution to "confront corruption and coercion between pharmaceutical companies and the civil service", but in all these years there has been no investigation, no clear signals and even less actions to improve Birmex. On the contrary, the little that was in place was lost.
Without the public focus on Birmex, all the bad things that can happen to institutions occurred, and since for the previous government having a military man at the head was a guarantee of everything and nothing, that is how it happened. It was associated that a military man was synonymous with honesty and now we will see what happened and with data, not of the others, but of our own that show us the crude reality.
On the last day of the previous administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, General Lohmann revealed what was already known at the beginning of the administration: Birmex was operating in the red, but what did it do during all those years?
The worst thing is not that, unfortunately that has already happened, but, and now, what's next? Since the administration of PAN member Felipe Calderón, a strategy was created, unfortunately full of many obscure points, but a strategy at last to make Mexico a producer of a priority vaccine, one of them against influenza after the influenza pandemic hit us, but years later we see that once again we were unable to take advantage of it as a country. Yes, again, sorry.
The idea is that from 2024 onwards Mexico would produce for the first time in its territory the vaccine against influenza and that by 2032 it would have accumulated up to one hundred million doses against influenza. The initial production would be 20 million. That was the good news, the bad news is that it was not achieved.
In the parts of the negotiation, Birmex's administration during the last six-year term, the state-owned company did not manage to maintain, much less increase or carry out new tasks entrusted to it, such as the purchase and distribution of medicines. The results it gave together with the Instituto de Salud para el Bienestar were a disaster: shortages and purchases plagued by corruption.
Unfortunately, it is not only that, according to the Superior Audit Office of the Federation, as published by Pedro Villa y Caña in El Universal, that at the head of Birmex, General Jens Pedro Lohmann repeated corruption schemes used in other times, hiring personnel without documents that accredit professional experience or the necessary studies to make the state-owned company the vaccine company that was known in Mexico in the 70's of the last century.
In recent days, President Claudia Sheinbaum presented her strategy for Health, a series of actions among which the priority is to have medicines and supplies on time.
In his interview statement, Lohmann also revealed that for Birmex to recover its strategic role as a producer and seller of vaccines, including to Latin American countries, a large investment is required, but above all "to evaluate the cost-benefit" of such a bet.
He said that there are areas of the state-owned company that need to start from scratch because the infrastructure is obsolete, but there are priority issues such as this one in which it is better to start from scratch someday, than to face again the voracity of the pharmaceutical companies and the global competition for supplies in the middle of a pandemic, as we saw with Covid-19.
With a scientist at the helm of the country, it seems that this is a great national project. Someone who finally understands the importance of betting on scientific development in health. To a certain extent, it is not necessary to start from scratch, in health institutions, universities, research centers and in Birmex itself, there are expert groups with the knowledge to do so. It is better to rescue a national company like this one in time than to go from Guatemala to Guatepeor.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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