Venezuela - Venezuela initiates production of generic medicines

Citation

(2009), "Venezuela - Venezuela initiates production of generic medicines", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 22 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2009.06222fab.003

Venezuela - Venezuela initiates production of generic medicines

Article Type: News and views From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 22, Issue 6

Keywords: Quality medical products, Healthcare equality, Healthcare strategy

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inaugurated a new pharmaceutical production center in Caracas, allocated funding to build another similar one, inaugurated 118 new medical centers, and released the country’s first locally manufactured mobile phone, bringing Venezuela a few steps closer to economic sovereignty.

The pharmaceutical production center was first created in 1993 but was abandoned and rendered unproductive due to lack of investments by previous governments, according to government press sources. The center has now been renovated and re-opened with 64 new staff.

“We are starting to make medicine of a high quality in a way that has never happened before in Venezuela,” Chávez said on his weekly presidential talk show, “Aló Presidente”.

He said the new center will make a range of medicines including insulin, antibiotics, syrups and anti-retrovirals, and sell them at subsidized or production cost prices to Venezuelans and member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which is a trade bloc alternative to US-dominated free trade agreements.

According to the Ministry of Health, the center will also distribute the medicine and be a storage place for expensive medicines which the ministry already distributes for free, such as the treatment for AIDS.

The factory will start producing in about two weeks, with primary material coming from India, China, Sweden and Germany.

Chavez also approved $40 million to be spent in 2009 and $43 million in 2010 to construct a pharmaceutical industrial complex which will be located on 20 hectares of land in Guacara, Carabobo state. The plant will produce insulin, creams, ointments, suppositories, therapeutic liquids, antibiotics, tablets, and capsules.

Health Minister Jesus Mantilla said the Carabobo-based medicine production complex will have the capacity to supply all the countries of ALBA.

“We’re going to convert ourselves into exporters of medicine in the future. First, of course, for us, and later to share with other countries,” Chavez said. He also estimated the insulin produced would benefit up to 52 million people.

These projects “aim to guarantee the right to health and life to the people, not only for those who can pay, as under capitalism where if you can pay you’re guaranteed everything,” Chávez said.

Also, Chavez expanded the Barrio Adentro Mission, a social program which builds free health care clinics in local communities with assistance from Cuban doctors who are experienced in community health, by inaugurating 110 new primary health clinics.

In addition to the primary health clinics, the government inaugurated five Integral Diagnostic Centers (CDI), which provide more advanced services such as emergency care, ultrasound, and endoscopy, and two Integral Rehabilitation Centers (SRI).

By satellite transmission, Chávez inaugurated an ophthalmology center that is equipped to perform eye operations such as cataracts and more complicated surgeries, and also allocated funding for seventeen public hospital renovation projects.

Including these new medical centers, Venezuela now has 4,565 in total, including 3,606 local consultation centers, 482 CDIs, 545 SRIs, and 23 High Technology Centers, according to government figures.

For more information: www.venezuelanalysis.com