Brazilian Government to Invest in R&D

Brazil's health ministry has announced that it is to invest BRL80mn (US$30.39mn) on research into new medicines to combat viral and bacterial infections. Officials claim that the country already has the capacity to produce and patent new therapies, and authorities have recently moved to build disease management infrastructure. Nine new government-run disease centres are scheduled to open in the second half of 2005 in eight of the country's states, with three more opening in 2006.

The news also follows the announcement that a leading Brazil-based research centre is to begin work on a potential rival therapy to UK drug major GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix vaccine for rotavirus. Although some outsourced clinical trial work is carried out in Brazil, whether the country's government has the necessary capacity to carry out significant discovery efforts remains to be seen. Meanwhile, much of the local manufacturing sector remains focused on lower-cost generics production.