“It is a reason for great satisfaction”, López-Gatell celebrated the appointment of Alejandro Svarch as head of COFEPRIS

This Wednesday, Dr. Alejandro Svarch Pérez was appointed by the Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela, as the new head of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS). The appointment was classified by the Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, as “a reason of great taste”For the work team of the Ministry of Health.

According to the official, the ratification of Svarch as the new commissioner was a direct consideration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador before the recommendation of Alcocer Varela. In addition, he considered it beneficial because he shares the vision of “the fourth transformation on promoting and protecting the public interest and this is exactly what we need in COFEPRIS to lead this agency “.

In recent days, the undersecretary considered that COFEPRIS has been handled in a non-transparent way. In fact, he directed his concern towards managers and managers who have been through the dependency for the last 15 years, because “unhealthy practices have been identified that can lead to unprofessionalism, little transparency and lack of equity”.

COFEPRIS, according to the undersecretary, has had mismanagement in recent years (Photo: Twitter @ COFEPRIS) 

In that sense, he recognized that Dr. Svarch provides certainty about compliance in the transparency, fairness, professionalism, innovation and creativity, guiding elements that will help the renewal of the Commission and the elimination of “old vices and inadequate practices that have led us to lag behind in professional development in health regulation and control.”

Svarch takes over from José Alonso Novelo Baeza, who left the post for health reasons, according to Hugo López-Gatell, who said:

“José Novelo deserves all our respect, all our consideration. He had a health condition and he himself, at the time of his recovery, calculated that he could be restored to his functions. It was not possible and so he needs a longer recovery time. That is one of the fundamental motivations ”.

The Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, celebrated the appointment of Alejandro Svarch during a press conference at the National Palace (Photo: Efe) 

Who is Alejandro Svarch

Is Graduated from the medical career of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he also studied the specialty of Internal Medicine. He has clinical training at Pemex’s Central Sur de Alta Especialidad Hospital, as well as at the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, the Yucatán Regional High Specialty Hospital and the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

During his time in the federal public administration, he has served as General Director of International Relations of the Ministry of Health, as well as head of the National Medical Coordination Unit of the Health Institute for Well-being (INSABI). In this position he was in charge of hiring more than 50 thousand health workers to face the health emergency due to COVID-19 in the country, although it also expanded the offer of medical specialties.

Among other things, COFEPRIS is the body in charge of approving the drugs administered in Mexico (Photo: Twitter @ COFEPRIS) 

Also, in recent days, it became known that He was part of the team of doctors who treated President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his convalescence after being diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As indicated in his professional profile on Linkedin, his medical work has revolved around the contexts of humanitarian and disaster aid in developing countries. In fact, he has 12 years of volunteering in the association of Doctors without borders, where he was also a member of the Board of Directors for Latin America. However, his experience in the medical field extends to countries such as Switzerland, Uruguay, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico.