Brasília - To make access to medicines not just a privilege of rich people in Brazil. This was President Lula's purpose in June, when he launched the Community Pharmacy Program. There are currently 22 pharmacies in four capital cities: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Goiânia, and Salvador. The pharmacies are supplied with 84 types of medications, corresponding to 80% of what are considered less complex diseases, those which do not require surgery. The most solicited remedies are for the treatment of hypertension and diabetes.
"The program serves the entire population, but it is directed most of all at people unable to pay a lot of money for their medicines and who often discontinue treatment," affirms the National Coordinator of the program, Jamaira Moreira Giora. According to the National Council of Secretaries of Health (Conass), 51.7% of the Brazilian population fits this description.
Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) demonstrate that health care is fourth on the list of Brazilian family expenses and that medicines can consume as much as 61% of the family's health budget.
According to the Ministry of Health, in its first month of operation, the community pharmacy network distributed approximately 10 thousand vials and 173 thousand tablet or capsule strips, sold to the public at cost. It is estimated that between 400 and 700 people are served each day by the community pharmacies.
The most popular drug was acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) in 100 mg. doses, used as an auxiliary medicine to treat hypertension. Its price in the community pharmacies is 88% lower than at regular drugstores. In addition to medications for hypertension, the community pharmacies also offer remedies for asthma, bronchitis, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, gastritis, arterial hypertension, and cardiac insufficiency.
Besides the creation of a network of pharmacies - the goal is to install 100 throughout the country by the end of the year - the program also plans to subsidize the price of twelve medications sold in regular pharmacies across the country and used in the treatment of diabetes and hypertension, in addition to reducing the sales tax (ICMS) on about 2,800 medications, beginning in 2005.
The community pharmacies will not have medicines for diseases that require special treatment, such as Aids, cancer, and schizophrenia. For these diseases, the government has specific programs in which the medications are distributed at no cost.
Agência Brasil
Reporter: Irene Lôbo
Translator: David Silberstein
07/27/2004
