Senior officials from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) and BioCubaFarma, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries group, have told a press conference that since 2016, chronic shortages of pharmaceuticals have occurred in the Cuban healthcare system. Minsap and BioCuba Pharma are attempting to mitigate the deficiencies.
The officials said that the shortages are largely due to the economic consequences related to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Rita María García Almaguer, Director of Operations and Technology at BioCubaFarma, told Granma that more than 85 percent of pharmaceuticals are imported and Cuba has been struggling to pay for these imports. Cuba is unable to use the U.S. dollar in its transactions and has to rely heavily on imports from China, India, and Europe for essential medications which results in increased costs and postponed delivery dates.
Ms. Garcia said, “The production of some forms of pharmaceuticals was stalled because the resources were not available on time, which means we were unable to fulfill the demands of the national health system.”
Over the past year there have been deficiencies in medications for contraception or blood pressure while Cuba has focused on cancer, chronic disease and HIV drugs.
The Director also said that there are 801 medications on the essential medication list, 505 are manufactured by the national pharmaceutical industry and the remaining 296 are imported from overseas markets. The national health system also uses 144 Cuban manufactured natural medications which are accessible in the National Health System.
BioCubaFarma and Minsap have been collaborating since last year to resolve drug shortages and ensure availability Cristina Lara Bastanzuri, head of the Medicine Planning Department told the media.
