Seeking ways to develop local medicines as prices rise

The prices of pharmaceuticals and medicines in Panama. constantly rising have increased another 2.2% largely because of the high costs of introducing medication to a small market while the government is seeking ways to boost local production;

“What happens in Panama and the rest of Central America is that they are very small markets and many times the big laboratories are not interested in selling  their products here or participate in the bids for  the Ministry of Health and the Social Security, which generates a shortage, forcing the industry to buy at high prices that are then transferred to the patient, “said Antonio Arias, manager of Absorption Systems Panamá

The specialist warns of the need to help the local pharmaceutical industry to be committed to the parameters of quality and innovation required by the market.

“Last year, the government raised the possibility of creating a ‘pharmaceutical hub’, but to

achieve that , it is necessary to equip the National Pharmacy and Drug Directorate to be able to audit and control expeditiously the problems that present any batch of medicines, without the need to travel to other countries. which means that favoring the local industry will support the development of the country,” said the specialist, in the framework of the launch of the In Vitro Dissolution and Absorption System (IDAS-2).

The IDAS-2 is an innovative device that allows evaluating the dissolution profiles of medicines and impermeability to demonstrate how the active substance of the drug is absorbed by the human body, reproducing everything that happens in the process.

“The interesting thing about this tool is its ability to filter the behavior of these medicines, while the data obtained can be used by the regulatory agent to determine why a drug is not generating the expected effect, “he said.