Pharmaceutical policy in Argentina

Abstract

The Argentinian health system consists of three subsectors: 46.4% of the people have health coverage in the social insurance subsector; 36.1% in the public subsector; and 5.1% have voluntary private insurance. The country is the fourth largest pharmaceutical market in Latin America and has a considerable production capacity. Argentina’s pharmaceutical policies regulate all issues related to access, quality, and rational use of medicines, except pricing. Argentina has taken measures to harmonize national regulations with international standards including regulations on clinical trials, good manufacturing practices, and bioequivalence and bioavailability standards. Recently, the National Medicines Traceability System was implemented aiming to control counterfeit medicines. Regarding access to medicines, the Remediar Plan, implemented in the health system’s public subsector, has had positive redistributive impacts. However, Argentina still faces challenges to provide equitable access to medicines because of the huge fragmentation of the health system and the existence of different lists of essential medicines for each health system subsector. Argentina has also taken measures to encourage rational use of medicines, such as the promotion of prescription and dispensation of generic medicines; the definition of the essential medicines list for the public subsector; and the development of treatment guidelines for the diseases covered by the social insurance subsector. Moreover, a law is currently under discussion for the creation of a National Health Technology Agency. The research on medicines use needs to be strengthened in the country. Although some initiatives been undertaken by the academics and professional organizations and there are few studies available in the scientific literature.