• HEALTH: The López Obrador administration is seeking to centralize decisions in Mexico’s health sector by eliminating two key regulatory agencies in charge of medical arbitration (CONAMED) and drug safety (COFEPRIS), according to sources cited by Reforma newspaper.
• CENTRALIZATION: Created in 1996 and 2001 respectively, CONAMED and COFEPRIS currently operate as two agencies within the umbrella of Mexico’s Health Ministry. According to sources, the agencies were notified on July 27th that they would be folded into the Ministry’s own mandate.
• KEY: “No, no, no. COFEPRIS continues (to exist). It is very important. It is the (agency) in charge of verifying the quality of medicines, of medical equipment. COFEPRIS is fundamental”, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said today when asked about the subject.
• FACTORS: Since taking office in December 2018, López Obrador has lambasted other independent agencies across the Mexican government -from telecom regulation to anti-discrimination prevention- saying that their creation during the past three decades was unnecessary and costly.
