The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) wants the region to develop platforms for producing and distributing new vaccines and medicines as part of “a concerted regional health strategy”. ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena, addressing the 21st meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), presented progress on the “Comprehensive Plan for Health Self-Sufficiency”, a programmatic blueprint that ECLAC is developing at the request of CELAC for strengthening the production and distribution of medicines, particularly vaccines, in regional countries and for reducing external dependence. Bárcena addressed the situation of health-care systems
