Nelson Motta
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says that the expansion of the "Farmácia Popular" (a network of state-run pharmacies) to 1,200 privately-owned pharmacies under a partnership agreement will be "a historical landmark in the history of healthcare in Brazil." The new pharmacies open today, Friday, March 24.

According to the Ministry of Health, by associating with commercial pharmacies the Farmácia Popular will be able to provide consumers with medicines with price reductions of up to 90%. That will be important for low-income people with hypertension and diabetes, especially. The ministry estimates that some 11.5 million people will be directly benefitted.

The ministry says that there are estimated 16.8 million Brazilians over the age of 40 with hypertension and that 7.7 million of them are enrolled in the Unified Health System SUS - which is state-run and free to the public), meaning that they get free drugs.

As for diabetes, it is estimated that there are 5 million people with the disease. Out of that number 2.6 million are enrolled in the SUS.

The pharmacies will operate under a "co-participation system," in which the government will foot most of the bill for medicines (varying from 50% to 90%).

Translation: Allen Bennett