Modernization of drug procurement: a great success

Our country has just taken a big step towards the modernization of regulatory and purchase of medicines, with the approval of Law 1007.

This effort was achieved as a result of painstaking multi-sector joint work that took almost two years to compile the criteria of the academic community, medical and pharmaceutical sectors, professional associations, subjects governments and the Pan American Health Organization.

In essence, the new law is expected to help solve the problem of food shortages. medicines in public institutions, and have more timely and equal access. Modernization of the Law was a necessity in the spirit of enabling more efficient management of investments in healthcare.

With this legislation, The acquisition of new therapies is strengthened by the possibility to have a consolidated patient database, establish a shortened time for approval of health records and achieve better administration and implementation of public procurement, since now and Ministry of Health, such as the Social Insurance Fund (CSS) and the so-called solidarity pharmacies will be able to buy together, which will result in better conditions for bulk purchases.

It will also be launched National observatory for drugs, which will collect prices at private, institutional and international levels. Until now, tenders in Panama have been conducted based on historical prices, creating delays and abandoned processes due to incompatibilities between demand and bidder inventory. The positive thing about this repository is that it will be possible to have realistic prices more accurate and transparent national and international purchases.

In addition, price will no longer be the dominant criterion when purchasing treatment, as it has been established that weights can be used that include other reasons such as the quality and cost-effectiveness of drugs andin this way, choose therapies according to their effectiveness and not necessarily because of its price, which will be of great benefit to patients.

Another novelty in The law applies to managed entry agreements, known as MEAs, a method of obtaining medicines that has been successfully used for more than 10 years in developed countries for the timely introduction of new therapies. This allows health authorities, among other things, to pay for treatment based on the benefits achieved by patients.

This type of agreement will allow, for example, people with chronic conditions or complex pathologies timely access to advanced therapies, thus also enabling the sustainability of the healthcare system, with large medium and long-term benefits.

What now follows is the process of regulating the law, where the expanded table will function in two ways: regulatory and acquisition, with the aim of published executive order.

The health of Panamanians will benefit from all these improvements, so we congratulate the authorities and all the actors in the the health sector for excellent work.