Abstract

MAGALHAES, Jorge Lima de; ANDRADE, Núbia Boechat  and  ANTUNES, Adelaide Maria de Souza. Overview of the public health system in Brazil and major challenges for public drug manufacture. Rev. cub. salud pública [online]. 2008, vol.34, n.3, pp. 1-10. ISSN 0864-3466.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0864-34662008000300013.

The Brazilian government has a Unified Health System, founded by the 1988 constitution and regulated in 1990 (The 8080 Act). The Brazilian Government devised the medical assistance programs for enhancing the public health in Brazil, in which the public pharmaceutical production plays an important role. The objective of this study was to obtain an overview of the Unified Health System, focusing efforts on pharmaceutical care programs and the contribution of the Brazilian Public Pharmaceutical Production Network. To this end, all laboratories were invited to interviews in addition to literature reviews and data obtained from government secretariats and ministries. Twenty two healthcare programs, the cost of drugs and mounted capacity of the public laboratories were identified. The Ministry of Health spent 12 % of its budget in drugs and the mounted capacity of the public pharmaceutical manufacture network amounted to 16.6 billions of pharmaceuticals.

Keywords : Public Health; health care; public drug manufacture.