Salud y Fármacos is an international non-profit organization that promotes access and the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals among the Spanish-speaking population.

Board of Directors and Executive Council

President of the Board of Directors and member of the Executive Council: Antonio Ugalde

Dr. Ugalde received a Doctorate from Stanford University, and is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Texas-Austin.  He has been a member of the Editorial Board for the Mexico section of the Handbook of Latin American Studies of the US Library of Congress, since 1981.  He has also served as a member of the Editorial Boards for Social Science and Medicine, Cuadernos Médicos-Sociales (Argentina), the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, the Medical Science Monitor (Hong Kong), and the Pacific Sociological Review.  He is currently a member of the Advisory Council of Salud Colectiva (Argentina).

Dr. Ugalde has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Program, the United States Agency for International Development, the American Public Health Association, and the Canadian Institute for International Development and Cooperation in various Asian and Latin American countries.  As a visiting professor, he has given classes and seminars at the University of Pittsburg, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Universidad del País Vasco (Bilbao, Spain), the Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia), the Catholic University of El Salvador, the Universidad del Pacífico (Lima, Peru), and the School of Public Health of Andalucia (Granada, Spain).  He is the author and editor of several books, and has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals.

Vice-president of the Board of Directors and member of the Executive Council: Antonio Alfau

Mr. Alfau is a graduate of the University of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Texas. Mr. Alfau has taken part in research studies with the Ministry of Public Health in the Dominican Republic, and worked for more than 15 years at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin. He is an Instructor in the Department of Modern Languages, Texas State University.

Treasurer of the Board of Directors and member of the Executive Council: Vanessa Johnson

Vanessa Johnson received a B.A. in International Relations and French from the University of Southern California-Los Angeles.  She served for 4 years as Executive Director of the FEMAP Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting public health in Mexico.  She has taken part in several sociological and epidemiological studies in Ciudad Juarez, including a study of violence against women and another on environmental lead.  She was Editor of an internet journal on the local culture and politics in El Paso, Texas.  Ms. Johnson currently lives in New Mexico, U.S.A.

Secretary of the Board of Directors and member of the Executive Council: Rafaela Sierra

Ms. Sierra studied Biology at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and Medical Statistics at the University of Rome. She worked as a researcher and professor at the University of Costa Rica. She was director of the Institute for Health Research (INISA / UCR) and founder and coordinator of the Cancer Research Program of the UCR. She was a co-founder and collaborator a program sponsored by JICA for the early detection of gastric cancer in a high-risk population in Costa Rica, in which the UCR, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and the University of Japan participated. She has conducted several collaborative studies with European universities and New York University.

Major investigations have included:

  1. Epidemiology of the most frequent cancers in Costa Rica
  2. Association of H. pylori with precancerous gastric pathologies and gastric cancer
  3. Biological markers for the early detection of gastric cancer in high-risk populations

As professor of Research Methodology and Epidemiology at the University of Costa Rica, she worked with groups that questioned the way in which human clinical trials were carried out in Costa Rica and promoted legislation to protect the human rights of research participants.

Member of the Board of Directors: Duilio Fuentes Delgado

Dr. Fuentes is an internist from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima) and has a Diploma in Research. He was a fellow of the “Collaborative Training Program in Research Ethics in the Americas” of FOGARTY-FLACSO (Buenos Aires, 2006). He also received training at the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products in Spain, obtained a master’s degree in Bioethics (Virtual) from the Borja Institute, Barcelona, and a Master’s degree in Strategic Quality Management and Medical Audit at the University of San Martín de Porres in Lima. Since 2004 he has worked at the National Institute of Health of Peru where he has held various positions: Evaluator and Inspector of the Clinical Trials Area of the OGITT, member of the Development Team of the Peruvian Clinical Trials Regulation (2004-2006), Executive Director of the National Center for Intercultural Health, Advisor to the Headquarters, and President of the Research Ethics Committee. Mr. Delgado is currently works in the area of observational and epidemiological studies at the OGITT and is also a professor of Bioethics and Research in the postgraduate program at Los Andes de Huancayo University and San Martín de Porres University. He is a member of the Latin American Network of Ethics and Medicines (RELEM), of the Bioethics-UNESCO NETWORK, of the Editorial Committee of the Unesco Bioethics Journal and a member of the Research Ethics Committee of the San Borja Children’s National Health Institute. His research focuses on bioethics and clinical trials. He has held the following positions: Research Director of the Complementary Medicine Management of EsSalud, Advisor to the General Directorate of the Lima Sur Integrated Networks Directorate, undergraduate research professor at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, and was a member of the group responsible for preparing the criteria and actions for the evaluation and compliance with the efficacy and safety of pharmaceutical specialties established according to national regulations.

Member of the Board of Directors : Andrea Carolina Reyes Rojas

Ms. Reyes is a pharmacist at the National University of Colombia and is pleased to be able to contribute to the building of a healthier relationship between medicines and people, institutions, health systems and societies. Her professional experience predominantly includes working with civil society organizations in Colombia dedicated to promoting access to medicines and to participating in the development of pharmaceutical policies at national and regional level and in multilateral scenarios. She has worked as a consultant for the office of the Registrar of the Sierra Leone Medicines Agency and the Medicines Directorate of the Colombian Ministry of Health. She seeks ways to strengthen the contribution of the pharmaceutical profession to society in Colombia and Latin America. Andrea Carolina loves to sing, listen to music and to practice yoga.

Member of the Board of Directors: Vanesa López

Ms. Lopez is Co-founder, Executive Director and Secretary of the Board of Salud por Derecho. Vanessa holds a degree in Social Psychology from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a Master’s Degree in International Cooperation from Comillas Pontifical University. After three years of experience in the private sector as a human resources consultant, she co-founded Salud por Derecho and became Executive Director. Vanessa is a regular speaker at events related to HIV/AIDS and access to medicine. She has participated on Spanish Parliament, Senate and regional parliament committees, on high-level meetings for the United Nations Programme on HIV as a representative of civil society, and on the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Member of the Board of Directors: Rogelio Fernández

Mr. Fernández is a graduate of the University of Habana (Cuba) in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and specialized in statistical quality control at the Centro Nacional para la Enseñanza de la Normalización de Cuba. He worked for the Cuban pharmaceutical industry in the production of liquid treatments and was deputy director of the Research Center for the Development of Pharmacoepidemiology (CDF) of the Ministry of Public Health in Cuba. In the year 2000 he became professor in Basic and Clinical Pharmacology at the Medical School of the Autonomous University of Nayarit (Mexico), where he is the Coordinator for Research and Graduate Studies. He was Vice-president of the Drug Utilization Research Group LatinAmerica (DURG-LA) from 2010-2014 and was director of the journal Waxapa, published by the Autonomous University of Nayarit. He has published numerous articles on pharmaceutical sciences and education in peer-reviewed and indexed journals. He has taught courses and made presentations on issues related to pharmaceuticals at universities and institutions in Latin American and European countries.

Member of the Board of Directors: Gabriela Costa Chaves

Dr. Costa is a pharmacist and has a Doctorate in public health from the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (ENSP) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil. She has dedicated her professional life to public health, with an emphasis on addressing barriers in access to medicines including high-priced medicines sold under monopoly conditions, and single-source technologies for neglected tropical diseases. She has worked in non-profit civil society organizations, and for the public sector. From 2013 to 2019, she was a researcher at ENSP / Fiocruz where she supervised graduate students and developed research on access to medicines in the Brazilian public health system.

Executive Director: Núria Homedes Beguer

Dr. Homedes studied medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and specialized in internal medicine and preventive medicine at the University of Barcelona, Spain. She received a Doctorate in Public Health from the School of Public Health at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, where she joined the faculty in 1997 and was the founder and Co-Director of the Global Health Program from 2005 until she retired in August 2018. As a physician, she worked with the Spanish National Health Service and coordinated a comprehensive health project for the Department of Health of Catalonia in a rural area of Catalonia called Altebrat, which included 60 cities. She was a researcher at the Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona. She was also the director of the Research Unit at the Ministry of Health of the Dominican Republic. Dr. Homedes has worked as a consultant for WHO, USAID, PAHO, the World Bank and the governments of Colombia, Mexico and Zambia, on issues related to health systems and human resources. She is the Secretary of the Executive Board for the International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB) and has been a member of the editorial board of several international health and ethics journals. Between 1992 and 1997, she joined the World Bank as a Public Health Specialist and worked in Asia (Papua Nueva Guinea), Africa (Mozambique, Chad, Zambia), Latin America (México, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panamá, Colombia, Perú, Argentina) and Guyana. In 2015 and 2016 she was Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. She has published six books and more than 100 articles.

modificado el 10 de octubre de 2023