The administration of Claudia Sheinbaum once again favored Neuronic, from which it buys drugs and finances research.
14ymedio, Havana, March 29, 2026 – The Cuban-Mexican pharmaceutical company Neuronic, which in 2023 delivered poor-quality and late medications worth more than two million dollars, continues to be favored by the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. Last year Mexico acquired thousands of doses of cancer drugs such as vincristine, methotrexate, doxorubicin, and ketamine for 227,000,000 pesos (12,516,883 dollars).
The drugs approved by the Mexican health system entered the country under the designation of “generics.” According to a report by the portal Latinus, three contracts were awarded directly in which Tania Urquiza Rodríguez appears as the legal representative of Neuronic, identifying herself as a Cuban businesswoman.
Through agreement DAF/AD-LPI-0052/2025, 19,572 boxes of injectable doxorubicin were acquired, each containing 10 vials, used in chemotherapy processes to treat leukemia, breast, ovarian, and thyroid carcinomas, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In addition, 19,060 packages of vincristine were purchased, used in Wilms tumors and neuroblastoma. The substances have a shelf life of two years.
The payment was made “directly to Neuronic,” through the laboratories of Biologicals and Reagents of Mexico (Birmex), a Mexican company founded in 1999 for the production, importation, and distribution of vaccines and medicines. The Cuban-Mexican pharmaceutical company in turn made bank transfers to Laboratorios AICA and BioCubafarma Treasury.
Mexico signed two other contracts with Cuba, which were entered into by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) to continue benefiting Neuronic. The first, under registration 012NEF001I01725-017-00, was for the purchase of 28,200 units of methotrexate, a drug that since August of last year has been supplied to cancer patients and for which 10,575,282 pesos (583,505 dollars) were paid.
The distribution of the medication began in the state of Querétaro. “It is strange that, with so many national suppliers available, they would go with a foreign one,” Alejandro Barbosa Padilla, spokesperson for the Nariz Roja association, which has more than 15 years helping oncology patients, told 14ymedio at the time.
Cuba was also paid 15,131,250 pesos (834,887 dollars) for 33,600 units of ketamine, an adjunct in pain control that is sometimes administered together with morphine.
The Government of Mexico has favored Neuronic again and again. The National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt) granted it 7,427 dollars three years ago for a pharmacokinetics project aimed at early detection of Alzheimer’s in rats.
Conahcyt received notification in March 2022 of four grants for other projects by the Cuban-Mexican company. It released the funds on September 27 of that same year. For the so-called “validation of the production process and preclinical trials with CNEURO-120”—the drug intended for early detection of Alzheimer’s—3,439 dollars were granted. Later, as part of that same project, 15,037 dollars were delivered and, in another phase of the research, 4,028 dollars.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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