The tablets are considered "orphan drugs". They are made at request of the Ministry of Health of the Nation that allows the patient to have a better quality of life.
Lunes 21 de julio de 2014 Since 2011, the Provincial Ministry of Health, through the Industrial Pharmaceutical Laboratory (LIF), has produced ephedrine 3 mg, which is among the so-called "orphan drugs", for a child in the province of Formosa who suffers from myasthenia gravis, a rare disease.
While there are several definitions for "orphan drugs", some are "associated with rare or very rare diseases that are those that affect a small portion of the population".
This type of medication can be defined as those that "although they are necessary for the population, no one is either willing or enabled by the health authority to produce them".
CRITICAL MEDICINES
"A medicine can also have an orphan condition when it is not available due to its high price. In this case, they are often called critical drugs".
Accordingly, and for these reasons, the provincial government, in its role as guarantor of the right to health, through the LIF has begun to produce these tablets on request, for a child from Formosa, since 2011.
EMBLEMATIC CASE
"When it comes to orphan drugs, this is an emblematic case", said the director of the Santa Fe lab, Guillermo Cleti, as he explained that in the LIF they say that this drug is a “complete” orphan, because there is no record of it, and the drug is not marketed".
The director outlined that the child from Formosa has needed this medication since 2008, year in which the local markets stopped selling ephedrine, fact derived from the famous case of the triple murder of General Rodríguez related to the “ephedrine” case.
After three years dealing with legal issues, the Ministry of Health of the Nation requested the LIF the production of these tablets.
BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE
"We have provided this medication for four consecutive years, after which, although there is no definitive cure of the disease, it enables the patient to have a better quality of life", said the director of the lab.
Deepening the approach to the subject, Cleti, confirmed that by the end of 2013, "we did the first provision of Hypertonic Chloride Solution (7%), medication used daily by those patients who suffer from cystic fibrosis".
This production was carried out jointly with the Blood Products Laboratory at the National University of Córdoba, in response to various concerns made by NGOs related to the fibrocystic patients’ concerns.
DRUGS FOR THE TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS
“There are projects to develop other medications of this type,” he recalled, and added that, recently, with the presence of the Minister of Health, Mario Drisun, and the rector of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Albor Cantard, it was launched the project "Generation of new capabilities for the development of tuberculostatic drugs” at the LIF.
This project, which aims to develop four drugs used in the treatment of TB, would be catalogued within the "critical drugs" cases.
In this case, the need to develop them arises from a strategic list issued by the Ministry of Health of the Nation, responsible for the provision of these medicines in the country.
Periodically, the nation puts out to tender these medications, but they tend to have drawbacks, both those associated with occasional interruptions in the availability of drugs at the time and place that are required for the treatment of cases, and those arising from modifications or changes in the presentation of these medications.
PUBLIC PRODUCTION AS A STRATEGIC TOOL
In this context, he praised the significance that this production has for the public health system and the vulnerable population; remarking that as a strategy, "it is important to have the public production, always keeping in mind that it is one of the tools that the public health system has to facilitate the access to drugs to the population".
"It is essential the continuous updating of this tool - he said - to meet the sanitary requirements", and he added, "the production of orphan drugs is an element within the public production of medicines (PPM) but it is not the only one".
Finally, Cleti warned that the production of next-generation drugs, as the Biogenerics, the drugs for chronic diseases, always with growing demand, for primary health care (main current production of the LIF) and the incorporation to the LIF vademecum of those specialties used in in-patients" are part of "the actions that we must promote, through the PPM".