The decision came amid a number of highly publicized scandals involving cases counterfeited medicines, including fake birth control pills, which led to social mobilization, from patient organizations, advocacy groups and the media, to improve the safety and quality of medicines.
By 2016, generic medicines were priced, on average, 40% lower than their innovator counterparts. In addition, the introduction of the 1999 Generics Law also contributed to the growth of the domestic pharmaceutical industry.
Future threats
One aspect these accomplishments have in common is that they were implemented in different governments, under different leaderships, parties and political ideologies. The plans and strategies carried over from one administration to the next, ensuring their continued application and further development.
The current administration, with Bolsonaro at the helm, has brought an aggressive “moral agenda” based on so-called traditional and family values into the government. By putting the secularity of the State in check, Bolsonaro has politicized concepts that proved crucial in the fight against AIDS. Some examples include reducing access to sex education, disregarding issues affecting the LGBTQ communities in its public policy, and favoring the term “abstinence” in place of “harm reduction” in its National Drug Policy documents.
As this young democracy still lacks the robust institutions needed to prevent potentially irreparable actions by a populist leader, politicizing health care in Brazil has the potential to undo the accomplishments made since the mid-1980s. In today’s political scenario, Brazil needs to remain vigilant in its separation of science and politics. Otherwise, even the country’s decades-long fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic could be jeopardized.
Print
Manuella Libardi | Radio Free (2020-07-10T15:25:39+00:00) Brazil: The undoing of a country known for its innovative health policies. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/07/10/brazil-the-undoing-of-a-country-known-for-its-innovative-health-policies/
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