ArticleFrontiers in pharmacology2020
The High "Cost" of Experimental Drugs Obtained Through Health Litigation in Brazil.
Article in Frontiers in pharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Treatment-specific interrupted time series analyses of judicial deference to health technology assessment in Brazil.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Article
- ClinicalTrials.gov as a Source of Information About Expanded Access Programs: Cohort Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Paving the way for small-molecule drug discovery.American journal of translational research · 2021Review
- Ethics framework for treatment use of investigational drugs.BMC medical ethics · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBrazilian patients have legal right to access unlicensed medicines undergoing clinical research, if there is evidence of efficacy and safety. This study investigated the occurrence of serious adverse events related to very high-cost medicines from clinical studies, expanded access and compassionate use programs, obtained by patients though health litigation.
methodsA descriptive study using secondary data investigated unlicensed medicines obtained through lawsuits from 2010 to 2017, costing more than 1 million Brazilian reais (BRL), adjusted by the Brazilian Consumer Index to July 2017. Data sources were the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency Registry (DATAVISA) and Adverse Events in Clinical Studies (NotivisaEC) Databases. Medicines were categorized by the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification to level 03 and events by the WHO Adverse Drug Reaction Terminology. The study received ethical approval by the University of Brasilia Institutional Research Board.
resultsIn the period, 812 drugs were obtained through litigation, and of these, 78 exceeded cost of 1 million BRL; 44 of them presented reports of 1,248 serious adverse events. Total Brazilian Government expenditure with these drugs was 3.2 billion BRL. Class L04A (n=7) showed greater expenditures (over 1.8 billion BRL). One hundred ninety-six deaths occurred and L01X was the most involved category (49.5%). Most other serious events (n=419) and sequelae (n=10) were related to L01X.
conclusionVery high-cost drugs paid for by the government and obtained through health litigation presented deaths and serious adverse events in expanded access and compassionate use programs in Brazil.
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