To strengthen health control actions, regulatory innovation and the fight against corruption and discretion were announced new internal changes in the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris). As part of these developments, Bertha Alcalde Luján now assumed the title of the Sanitary Operation Commission and said that one of her goals is to eliminate the miracle products. While Hermilo Domínguez Zárate will be in charge of the Evidence and Risk Management Commission.
In this regard, the Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, highlighted the work being done to transform this commission and the Federal Health System, especially to eradicate discretionary practices, some disguised as administrative technical malpractice, that prevailed since the birth of this organism for the benefit of particular interests or groups.
As an example, he referred to the reconstruction of some laws, regulations and norms that contained legal loopholes that were deliberately established in past administrations, with the purpose of deregulating to the detriment of the social good.
By presenting Bertha Alcalde Luján as the new head of the Sanitary Operation Commission (COS), López-Gatell Ramírez assured that this appointment will facilitate health surveillance with clarity and a sense of justice and will contribute to cleaning the institution of old practices of discretion .
Referring to Hermilo Domínguez Zárate, head of the Evidence and Risk Management Commission, Undersecretary López-Gatell Ramírez highlighted his extensive career, especially in public health with more than 20 years of experience.
Eliminate miracle products
The new commissioner of Sanitary Operation of Cofepris, Bertha Alcalde Luján, announced the project to create the Digital Health Surveillance Center, with which the monitoring of products offered via the internet and social networks, such as the so-called miracle that will be labeled, will be expanded. as hoax products.
This center will also allow video verification to give greater certainty to this task, especially in isolated places, always putting the public interest before the private.
For his part, Hermilo Domínguez Zárate stressed the importance of strengthening vigilance on possible risks, anticipating strategies and avoiding damage to health.
He noted that, in coordination with the federal health system, it will work on health promotion, specific protection, treatment, limitation of damage, rehabilitation and palliative care.
During the presentation of the strategic lines of sanitary regulation and control, he reiterated that emphasis will be given to sanitary surveillance; identification of environmental risks and basic sanitation; consumer products such as food, beverages and cosmetics, as well as toxic and dangerous substances; health supplies, including medicines, as well as pharmacovigilance and medical practice.
In the meeting, the holder of the Cofepris, Alejandro Svarch Pérez, announced that next year, the commission will assume ownership of the North American subregion of the Pan American Network for Harmonization of Pharmaceutical Regulations (Red PARF), which was headed in the previous period by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States. United.
He stressed that the changes in these two commissions strengthen Cofepris as a health institution committed to the protection of people, paying for its transformation to be more transparent, efficient, innovative and of reference.
Academic training of new directors
Bertha Alcalde Luján has a degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a teacher from New York University, where she focused her studies on Criminal Law and Comparative Law.
From 2007 to 2015 she worked on the Reform of the Criminal Justice System and from 2015 she worked as a trial lawyer, teacher, and advisor on reorganization, institutional design and evaluation of security and criminal justice institutions.
From December 2018 to November 2020, she worked at the federal Secretariat for Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), first as a general attorney and then as an office manager. Later, she served as a delegate for federal programs in Chihuahua, where, among other things, she coordinated the vaccination strategy in the state.
For his part, Hermilo Domínguez Zárate is a surgeon from the Veracruzana University and a specialist in Public Health from the same institution. He has a diploma in management skills development from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education.
He has served at the Chiapas State Health Institute as head of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and director of Health Services, a position he held five times.
He was also director of Health and Social Assistance in the System for the Integral Development of the Family of the state of Chiapas (DIF Chiapas).