Ecuador Prioritizes National and Cuban Industries to Buy Medicines

Quito, Sep 14. -Ecuador´s Health Ministry announced an auction to buy medicines, which favors domestic and Cuban industries, in return for technical assistance received from the Island.The corporate auction takes place through the National Institute for Public Contracting (INCOP), for approximately 1.1million USD and the medicines in competition cover 80 percent of the country's epidemiological profile.

The corporate auction will allow to introduce an important element of regulation of market prices, achieving a saving of over 500 million USD over the reference price, which means a great saving of resources for the country.

The auction will give priority to domestic production. Second, the medicines not produced in the country will be bought to Cuba; and in third, it will be opened to multinationals.

The medicines will be distributed in the Public Health Network: Health Ministry, Social Security Institute of the Armed Forces, Social Security Institute of Ecuador, and Social Security Institute of the National Police. (Prensa Latina)