President of Roche in Latin America says that the pandemic stripped health systems naked

The health systems of Latin America They faced the pandemic covid-19 to the biggest trial by fire that they could have had and that showed all their shortcomings and subjected the resistance of the countries to analysis, in such a way that ““It stripped the health systems naked.”

This was highlighted to EFE by the president of Roche Pharma for Latin America, Rolf Hoenger, who also highlighted the existence of studies that say that “an investment of one dollar in health In the region it generates four dollars in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which obviously cannot be seen overnight.”

In a lose-lose relationship, the different governments debated between preserving health and keeping the economy afloat, with health networks under maximum tension in the most critical period of the entire situation, considers Hoenger.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic in Latin America, a decline in regional GDP was recorded. 7.7%according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), while in 2021 there was a recovery in 3.7%he added.

In 2022, ECLAC itself confirmed a growth in 3.8% and the 2023 numbers could be close to the 23% on average, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“We have seen that the countries most affected by covid-19 had a greater impact on their economy”. There is a link. I think the pandemic showed what the link is, but it is not the only one, she explained.

For Hoenger, the pandemic left its mark: “The numbers clearly say that it has demonstrated the needs of the health system, since we have the region with the highest number of deaths from covid. It has mainly exposed the inefficiencies in terms of health, and that is seen in the numbers.”

GDP and health investment

To get closer to adequate health care and achieve acceptable coverage goals, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends investing 6% of GDP in this sector.

The average Latin American expenditure is around 3.8%but before the covid-19 situation this reached a 6.6%.

Even with this variation, Cuba falls outside the metrics with a 10.4%, very close to achieving universal coverage.

But, how can we ensure that the island’s precarious economic situation does not conspire against the health system?

“I have no doubt that health care dedicated to prevention and early detection is the way forward for all countries. If you think you catch breast cancer early, you can probably cure it. If you detect it in late stages, you will not be able to cure it, you will not prolong life and the cost for the system is at least double”said Rolf Hoenger.

“So, investing in early detection and prevention, for a health system, is absolutely necessary. “Cuba does have this, the neighborhood health system, but it has the other problem of not having everything available due to economic factors”he assures.

Argentina: an investment in health under threat

Argentina was the second country that allocated the most GDP spending to health in 2022 (6.6%)but its health system, highly questioned during the pandemic due to the existence of a so-called “VIP vaccination center”, in which those close to the Government were privileged when it came to vaccination against the coronavirus, is seriously threatened by rampant inflation.

In September the CPI registered a variation of 12.7% monthly and year-on-year jumped to 138.3%, which causes many health professionals to move from the public to the private system of prepaid medicine or to emigrate, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).

However, for Hoenger “There are very strong fundamentals in Argentina. It has a tradition of medical education, it has strong institutions, a relatively complex system because it is very segmented, and the subsystems have generated relatively good health care. These problems do exist, but I think it would be very difficult to speculate what we are going to have in a year. Our secret is to adapt to the circumstances”.

Latin American governments and pharmaceutical companies

Except for Cuba, which developed its own coronavirus vaccine (Abdala) and all Latin American governments received compounds manufactured by large pharmaceutical companies (such as Roche) to combat the disease.

This association, which in principle was almost purely economic, was transformed in many cases into a union that reflects the extent to which public-private relationships can be solidified to strengthen the health network and prevention.

The joint work of governments and pharmaceutical companies helped in many cases to make a difference in terms of social and economic impact, according to Roche’s top executive for Latin America.

“There were several governments in the region in which the idea of ​​really giving strength to the diagnostic part is something that, especially during the pandemic, has shown the value of all this. In the pandemic, knowing or not knowing what you had or did not have was essential, and that generated an awareness about health systems, that it is an investment that has to be madesays Hoenger, who started working at Roche in 1993.

Roche is the main company in the field and had a turnover of US$67,196 million in 2022. The Swiss company partnered with Moderna in December 2020 to create the messenger RNA vaccine against the coronavirus.