The text will be analyzed by the plenary of the Chamber; The Constitution currently prevents the collection and processing of blood by the private sector
On Wednesday 4th, the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Senate approved with 15 votes in favor and 11 against a Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) which allows the collection and processing of human plasma by the private sector. Currently the sale of blood and its derivatives is prohibited by the Constitution. The text passes in the Chamber and, if approved, will be transmitted to the Chamber.
The provision, called “Plasma PEC”, goes against the position of the Ministry of Health, which defended the overturning of the proposal because it believes that the modification opens a loophole for paid blood donation, causing damage to the Unified Health System (SUS) . . Plasma is the liquid part of the blood, which can be used to produce medicines, called blood products. The issue has divided members of the government base in the Senate.
Initially, the text of the rapporteur on the topic, Senator Daniella Ribeiro (PSD-PB), provided for paid blood collection, but the possibility was removed from the text by the parliamentarian herself, who accepted an amendment which proposed the exclusion of section. The same amendment also establishes that a subsequent law will regulate the requirements for the collection, processing and marketing of plasma by both the private and public sectors. The text also establishes that the production of blood-derived drugs “preferably” by the SUS.
Senator and former Minister of Health, Humberto Costa (PT), criticized the text of the report and stated that, by guiding the definition of the criteria for a complementary law, the proposal facilitates the subsequent approval of the collection of payments.
“We take it from the Constitution and we will use a complementary law, where 50% +1 (from the senators) they can define that the collection is paid and the sale is also paid. Senator Nelsinho’s proposal (Trans, author of the project) it is said that medicines will be produced for SUS, the proposed report says ‘preferably'”, analyzed the senator and former Minister of Health, Humberto Costa (PT).
Previously, the author of the PEC, Senator Nelsinho Trad (PSD-MS), had defended the approval of the proposal in the CCJ by arguing that it is necessary to discuss the topic in plenary and also stating that patients have difficulty accessing these medicines. “People who suffer from immunodeficiency need medicine to live,” he said.
The SUS spends more than R$1.5 billion annually to import medicines to serve patients who depend on blood products. Assistance to these people is offered 100% by the public system.
Today, 30% of the blood products available in the SUS come from plasma donated in Brazil and administered by Hemobrás, which is currently the Brazilian state company responsible for processing the plasma. The prospect is that this rate will rise to 80% by 2025, when the company completes the technology transfer and work on the production complex. During the debate, senators defending the project criticized the company’s efficiency.
“Hemobrás is a Brazilian company, born and created in 2004, to supply the Brazilian plasma market. For 19 years, anyone who needed plasma in Brazil had to buy medicines from abroad,” said the rapporteur of the proposal, Daniella Ribeiro (PSD-PB). ).
The government leader in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), argued that the commercialization of Brazilian plasma will end up favoring rich countries who will be able to purchase the input at high costs, depleting the SUS, since the text does not establish that the production must be mandatorily offered to the SUS. “I warn you: what we will do is provide Brazilian human plasma to serve immunodeficient people in rich countries who can afford it,” Jaques Wagner said.
In the morning, the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, criticized the PEC. According to her, the measure could have an impact on the country’s autonomy, negatively reflecting on the SUS.
“The Ministry of Health considers the PEC Plasma a setback, because it puts the commercialization of plasma on the agenda and puts at risk a system which has been based in a very positive way, since the 1988 Constitution, on voluntary donation. I am 3 million people who donate blood per year. This blood is fractionated and plasma, as we know, is one of the components”, explained Nísia.
Again according to the minister, “there is a lot of concern both for the risk that this has an impact on this system, which is a system that works very well, and for having an impact on the autonomy and self-sufficiency of the blood produced, by moment that Brazil has built a company, which is Hemobrás, and which does all this work with the logic of complete service to citizens, free of charge, according to the principles of the SUS”.
Source: Terra
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