Intellectual property in the judicialization of pharmaceutical assistance: a structural demand in defense of the Brazilian National Health System

Abstract

This work investigates the participation of the Justice System in the process of realizing the right to health through the confrontation of two paths for judicial action. On the one hand, the predominant path, marked by the individualization of demands, the inability to reach political failures that determine the extent of health benefits provision and the potential to disorganize the Brazilian National Health System (SUS). On the other one, a structural perspective which brings judicial interventions closer to decisive conflicts that impact the consolidation and sustainability of the public health system. Based on the investigation of lawsuits requesting access to ranibizumab and bevacizumab in Minas Gerais, we analyzed the change of scenario that would be expected if the Federal Supreme Court made structural decisions when judging the Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality 4,234/DF and 5,529/DF. The results point to the importance of the Justice System privileging a structural perspective. In the current context, marked by increasingly explicit attacks to the right to health, it is essential that the Justice System participate in the process of implementing SUS in a coherent way, aware of the conflicts that define the possibilities of building a universal public system. The economic crisis, the worsening of the underfunding of health (especially due to the Constitutional Amendment 95/2016) and the unsustainable price of new drugs - resulting in their increasing participation in the totality of health expenditures - point to the need for structural issues to achieve centrality in the judicialization of health.

Keywords:
Judicialization of Health; Pharmaceutical Assistance; Brazilian National Health System; Health Policy; Intellectual Property