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Selection of essential medicines and the burden of disease in Brazil

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines essential medicines as those that meet the population’s priority healthcare needs. Their selection aims to reflect collective needs, thus recommending the use of studies on global burden of disease. An exploratory study was performed to link the medicines from the RENAME lists to Global Burden of Disease in Brazil (1998 and 2008) and the scientific evidence. The study thus sought to verify whether the RENAME (2002 to 2012) met WHO guidelines for drug selection. Although RENAME 2010 and 2012 both adhere to Global Burden of Disease in Brazil 2008, the 2012 version includes a longer list of medicines and appears to be pressured by the growing market for new technologies. Thus, RENAME is no longer a list of essential medicines, but has become a list of financing for pharmaceutical care.

Essential Drugs; Burden of Disease; Pharmaceutical Services


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