Mexico, Colombia and Cuba established the Latin American and Caribbean Medicines Agency (Amlac) this Wednesday by signing the Declaration of Acapulco, which includes the details and commitments of the overall initiative.
According to a Prensa Latina report dated the day before in Mexico City, at a ceremony chaired by that country’s Minister of Health, Jorge Alcocer, and health regulators from the signatory countries. , an official ceremony in Acapulco, Guerrero, that launches a new mechanism for regional cooperation, to which ten countries will join almost immediately.
From Mexico, the mechanism was initiated by the head of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofépris), Alejandro Svarch; from Cuba, Olga Ruiz, director of the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), and from Colombia, Mariela Pardo, head of the National Institute for Supervision of Food and Drugs (Invima).
Also National Coordinator for the Interim Presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), participating in the Agency, and Cuban Ambassadors Marcos Rodriguez and Colombian Alvaro Moises Ninco Daza, along with other diplomats.
Dr. Alcocer introduced the agency, its aims and objectives, and called it a milestone, as the region it covers lacks the infrastructure to produce vaccines and other medicines, and no emergency drug authorization.
It also shows that the idea of a Latin American drug enforcement agency is not an unattainable dream, because this is an America free to shape its own destiny to meet the needs of the people, he said.
He added that this mission of regional health self-sufficiency in our deeply unequal societies is very human, as is increased health regulation to make the right to health effective with a family-centered vision.
“With the Declaration of Acapulco, we underline the interest and the need to rebuild our social fabric as sister nations in order to guarantee the rights to health,” he said.
The signing of this declaration by Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, which is negotiating the establishment of the Latin American and Caribbean Medicines Agency, will bring us closer to self-sufficiency in health care and access to medical devices, he concluded.
It will also allow for the exchange of medical research and the transformation of offices, which will promote self-sufficiency and pharmacological sovereignty between countries.
Source: Juventud Rebelde