Rio, September 30, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Minister of Health, Humberto Costa, classified as "ludicrous" the current investments in government laboratories, which will receive R$ 40 million this year. He disclosed that this amount should be doubled in the 2004 budget, and he compared these amounts to the R$ 3 billion the Federal Health System (SUS) spends each year on medications.

The Minister defended the proposal to include the Health area in the discussion of public-private partnership mechanisms, as has been occurring in other sectors. He emphasized that priority should be placed on changes in the legislation to allow government employees to collaborate with professionals from the private sector.

Another fact considered important by the Minister is that there will always exist a large segment of the population whose access to medications is restricted to what the government provides. "However much the pharmaceutical industry develops in Brazil, we shall continue to have millions of people excluded from access to medications. For this reason the existence of government laboratories is important, since they can produce for the health system, without competing with the private sector."

The Minister criticized the restraints that hamper the development of the sector, among them, the conception of public indebtedness that does not permit the allocation of government resources to a government organ whose production is wholly consumed by a single buyer, in this case, the Ministry of Health.

The Minister took part, Monday (29), in the opening of the 2nd National Seminar on the Health Industry Complex, at the headquarters of the BNDES (National Economic and Social Development Bank), in Rio de Janeiro. (DAS)