A Lack of medicine in pharmacies It may seem to be a problem with adhering to dates, but the root of the issue is often not available Active pharmaceutical inputs (IFA)It is necessary to manufacture it. Without it, pharmaceutical CDs, capsules, or injections, such as Jorge Costa, technical advisor to the Presidency of Health Production and Innovation at the Oswaldo Cruise Foundation (fiocruz).
According to the entity, make sure production From these inputs is not just an economic issue, but too The country’s strategyReducing the risk of deficiency and strengthening National sovereignty in health.
Costa is one of those responsible for IFA national censusS, which has just been completed in Brazil. The study reveals that, currently 40 iPharmacy These inputs produce are necessary for Medicine manufacturing. In 2013, this number was 36, and it represented a modest increase in 12 years.
However, the data fears experts. Today, there are about 2000 Ifas Registered by the National Health Control Agency (AnvisaTrading in the national region, but only 100 of them are produced internally. “This means that we are making only 5 % of the country’s needs,” the counselor explains. fiocruz.
A Dependence on IFAS import It exposes the country to the risk of deficiency, which directly affects the supply of medicines.
“When the drug lacks in the pharmacy, the problem is often not in the manufacture of drugs that make tablets or injections, but in the absence of the IFA needed to produce it,” says Costa.
A Brazilian League for Pharmaceutical Inputs (ABIQUIFI) Evaluating these Brazilian needs Expansion of IFA manufacturing For at least 20 %. The percentage is seen as a strategic issue for the Brazilian pharmaceutical sector if it is the main suppliers, China and IndiaClose export.
“As that happened, India, in the first months of the Covid-19s, closed and sells nothing,” says Norberto Honoraato Prestes Junior, ABIQUIFI president.
Prests compares the Brazilian situation with the Brazilian situation USAWhich also imports 70 % of the basic inputs produced by China and India. The difference between the two cases, according to him, is that at the suspension of the offer, the United States can interact – and the government assumes risks with incentives for companies, regardless of the cost.
“France did this, many countries interact and speak with industries:“ its rules room. ”Because, if you are closing again (as in the epidemic), they can act, the residents are alive, which is essential. We need to go to the floor that we will not be independent, in the nineties, we can produce 50 % of IFAS.
Brazil has an industrial competitive advantage
A positive point specified Fiocruz census Is this much? Industries The sector works with unemployedWhich would allow a rapid increase in production with relatively low investments.
the 40 farm industries production Ifas no copperFor, 80 % of them, according to the study, have a structure of Research and Development (P & D)). In public companies, such as the Butantan and Fiocruz Institute, which is not for profit, innovation contribution can reach 50 % of the total revenue. In private companies, investment can reach 16 %.
“This is very positive and we are aware of an increase in the productive capacity and actual production of tons,” says Fiocruz Technical Adviser.
Two medications Pharmaceutical divisionKrista and Lebs Laboratory. Statistics also specify that all chemical drugs are 100 % national capital, such as Globe, Nortik E Blancar. The only only for public institutions biomanguinhos (Fiocruz), Butantan Institute, Ezequiel Dias Foundation, Brazil’s Biological Institute and TECPAR in the biotechnology sector.
“Brazil has a great opportunity to expand. With adequate incentive policies, we can double our national production from IFAS in a short time,” says Prests. Costa adds that the pharmacy profile shows that public policy also enhances “national capital, those who invest in Brazil.”
In addition to the expansion capacity, the country has a specific competitive advantage: IFAS production by extracting animalsEspecially through cattle and pigs. Fiocruz advisor notes that Brazil has a competitive advantage in this sector because it contains one of the largest Halflaws and pigs From the world.
According to IBGE, in 2023, only bulls and cows, Brazil reached 238,626,442. This allows the country to produce Ifas by extracting animals Widely, both for the local market and export.
These inputs are necessary in production HeparinIt is used as anticoagulants in medications. Chondroitin sulfateUsed against joint problems such as osteoporosis; and Peptonas – It is used as a means of culture in fermentation and tissue cultivation, but they are not drugs on their own.
Fiocruz: The technician ends the first batch of IFA from the Covid-19 vaccine in 2022 (image/cloning)
Although Brazil feature In the production of livestock, during the census, Costa documented that many companies complained of “unfair competition” in the region. Brazilian pharmaceutical industries that produce medicines with heparin prefer to import China’s inputs, rather than buying them from national industries.
This weakens local producers and hinders the growth of the production chain in Brazil. “Many foreign companies buy our inputs, cows and pork, and come out at a very low price,” says Costa of Fiocruz.
The head of the Fiocruz Study says that these companies import these inputs using a Mercosur joint norms (NCM) Who does not actually correspond to the imported product to pay a lower tax.
He says: “It is a fraud that harms the national product, which harms the country because it does not collect the taxes that they must raise.” The national pharmaceutical industries indicated the statistics of the need to alert Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC) To take action.
According to Costa, the next step IFAS National Census It is the search for MDIC and Ministry of Health To provide X -rays to the sector and Determine strategic inputs For national production. The goal is to clarify Public policies To enhance this production.
A symbolic example of the medicine that fits this profile is the L-ESPARAGINASE enzyme, and it is referred to for the treatment of leukemia for children and there is no production in Brazil.
“In the past, we had a dangerous shortage of the product and even the Inca created a multidisciplinary group to address this emergency. I remember that in one of these meetings, an emotional call warned of the loss of many children’s patients because of the lack of medicine. Children who could survive and developed to die because of the active pharmaceutical juvenile.”
The study also enhances the need for a Industrial policy Confrontation Enhance the national production of IFAS He defends expansion Public and private partnershipsSuch as the local development and innovation program (PDIL) and partnerships for production development (PDP).
According to the data that I opened this week by ABIQUIFI, the partnerships broke the record in 2024. About 350 projects were presented, or nearly three times more than the last time the advertisement opened, almost 10 years ago.
Jorge Costa concludes that in order for the country to become a related representative in the pharmaceutical sector within 15 to 20 years, it is necessary to treat this field in the name of strategy To Industrial policy In the long run, regardless of political changes.
“Ireland was an agricultural country at all, and the Irish government realized that the pharmaceutical field was a strategy to highlight Ireland, and began to enhance work, form engineers, etc. Ireland is fighting with the main P&D centers, and that could not be an opportunity for a tank, as it is not done in the years. The actor is saved in this scenario.”
