Resumo

SOARES, Jussara Calmon Reis de Souza  e  DEPRA, Aline Scaramussa. Dangerous liaisons: the pharmaceutical industry, patients associations and the legal battles for access to medicines. Physis [online]. 2012, vol.22, n.1, pp. 311-329. ISSN 0103-7331.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-73312012000100017.

The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the legal claims for pharmaceutical drugs in Brazil, as part of the struggle for access to these products. A brief discussion about the pharma industry is made, followed by the state-of-the-art of the so-called process of "health judicialization". These are the basis for the reflections on the relationships between the corporations and patients' associations, which are part of the strategies used by the pharma industry in order to expand the market. These liaisons may be influencing the augmentation of court requests, thus damaging the responsible drug use. The role of commodification of healthcare is discussed.

Palavras-chave : pharmaceutical industry; patients' associations; drug utilization; judicial decisions.