Ricardo Ibarra-Cabrera
INBIOXICA SA de CV / Asociacion Mexicana de Comites de Etica en Investigacion, Mexico
Title: Impact of novel Mexican policies on the healthcare and pharmaceutical landscape: Is the industry ready for the big boom?
Biography
Biography: Ricardo Ibarra-Cabrera
Abstract
In the last ten years, the Mexican healthcare sector has gone through several big transformations. The development and implementation of new initiatives have changed the sector’s dynamics. For instance, universal health coverage in the country requires medical attention and provision of medicines to more than 15 million people who did not have access to them before. In this regard, the Federal Commission for the Protection of Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) has taken several measures such as abbreviating the approval pathway for generics, derogating the local plant rule for drug production, phasing out copy drugs that are not bioequivalent, and establishing a clear regulatory framework for biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Moreover, for the sake of increasing expenditure on R&D activities, new funding programs have emerged from different Mexican Institutions that stimulate the development of the biotech and biomedical sectors. Consequently, the fastest healthcare spending growth in the Latin American region will be in Mexico, at more than 10 percent a year. Therefore, new challenges and business opportunities have arisen for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in the country. The upcoming years are a milestone for this sector to flourish and succeed in improving people’s quality of life.