1970-01-01 02:00:00
The Ministry of Health keeps about 90 million items that expire until the end of July. Inherited from the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government with a short validity, this stock includes HIV medicines, vaccines, contraceptives and medicines from the so-called “intubation kit”.
Minister Nísia Trindade’s team is negotiating with the industry to exchange part of the products. The complete list of SUS items stored at the Health distribution center in Guarulhos (SP) has been confidential since 2018 and was kept that way by the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.
A Sheet obtained a list of products that were registered in the folder’s stock in mid-April. These data show that the ministry stored 4.5 million pills of darunavir 600 mg, expiring until the end of May, a product used in the treatment of HIV and delivered in boxes of 60 units.
Valued at BRL 26 million, this batch of darunavir represents about 20% of the total purchase made in 2020. Saúde claims that it has already ordered the replacement of 3.7 million pills of the product.
The team of the Minister of Health blames the Bolsonaro administration for the accumulation of products with a short expiration date. Members of the folder say that several purchases were made without planning and there was no effort to deliver them on time.
The Lula government is still having difficulty transferring these inputs with a shorter shelf life to states, municipalities and other countries.
The ministry claims that it received about 160 million items from the previous management, expiring from January to July. The products are worth R$981.8 million, according to the folder.
Former Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga told Sheet that the technical areas were responsible for purchases and denied having lacked commitment to the delivery of vaccines and products such as contraceptives.
The ministry still has about 7.1 million vials of immunizers for various diseases that expire at the end of July, 4 million of which are for the meningococcal vaccine, which protects children against meningitis. About 900 thousand vials of Covid vaccines, with five doses each, are in the same stock.
Also expired in this period 10 million units of sedatives and other drugs used in intubating patients.
In a note, Health claims that it has already managed to avoid the loss of 775,300 units of these products with donations or deliveries to entities linked to the SUS. These drugs were acquired on a large scale, but with a delay, when SUS ran out of supplies of the so-called “intubation kit” during the pandemic.
Part of the SUS managers say that the disclosure made by Health about the products about to expire is insufficient, in addition to the mobilization for the delivery of the batches.
In a note, Conasems (National Council of Municipal Health Secretariats) states that it did not have access to stock data.
“We only become aware of medicines with an expiration date when we are called upon by the Ministry of Health to support the dissemination and dissemination of items available for donation by the Ministry”, says the entity.
There are around 1.4 billion items in the Health inventory. This number also considers products with a longer shelf life. Needles and syringes, in addition to male condoms, represent more than half of the items stocked.
Distribution center data counts inputs in different units, such as vials and pills. The table obtained by the report considers a vaccine bottle containing ten doses, for example, to be an item.
The same database states that 56 million birth control pills expired by March. This product could be counted as about 2.6 million cards.
Another 60 million contraceptive pills expire by June. In a statement, Health says it managed to exchange 31.5 million units of this contraceptive for batches with a longer shelf life.
Part of the SUS inputs expired in recent years has already been incinerated and is outside the current stock data. As revealed to Sheetabout BRL 2.2 billion in vaccines, rare disease drugs, tests and other products have gone to waste since 2019.
Representative of RNP+ Brasil (National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) in the health care commission for people with pathologies of the CNS (National Health Council), Moysés Toniolo says he asked the new government for access to data on drug stocks, but it was not answered.
Another reflection of the pandemic is the stock of more than 20 million gloves, protective clothing and masks already expired. Part of this product was banned because it was considered outside sanitary standards.
The secrecy of the stock became a target of Congress. A bill is pending in the Chamber, already approved in the Senate, to determine that data on SUS inventory be presented on the internet.
Confidential information about the stock still reveals the loss of medicines used daily in health centers. The Bolsonaro government allowed 95,000 paracetamol 500 mg pills to expire in September 2022, a medicine that became scarce on the market in the same period.
SECRET HEALTH STOCK
About 90 million items expire by the end of July
- Contraceptives (pills) – 60 million
- Drugs from the ‘intubation kit’* – 10 million
- Vaccines (vial) – 7.1 million
- Protective clothing – 5.1 million
- Darunavir 600 mg (tablets)** – 4.5 million
- Other inputs*** – 3.3 million
*Drugs presented in various forms
**Medicine used in the treatment of HIV
***Medicines for different diseases, tests and other products
Source: Ministry of Health stock data obtained by Sheet
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