After 23 years, Brazil returns to producing insulin.
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To mark this resumption, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated today in the inauguration ceremony of the Biomm insulin production plant, in Nova Lima, Minas Gerais. Production has the potential to serve 1.9 million patients.
With an investment of R$800 million, the factory has the capacity to meet the national demand for insulin and promote access to treatment for diabetes patients.
Brazil is one of the countries with the highest incidence of diabetes in the world, with 15.7 million adult patients, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Atlas.
The initiative is part of the new strategy to guide production and national innovation in health to serve the Unified Health System (SUS) and to care for people, generating jobs, income and investment in Brazil.
During the event, the president said that the insulin factory in Minas Gerais is the first in a series of ventures in the health sector and defended the SUS.
“Brazil is the only country in the world with more than 100 million inhabitants that has something extraordinary like the SUS, which has the power to scale any undertaking in the health sector. A sovereign country needs a strong national industryâ€, said President Lula
"A sovereign country needs, especially in the area of ​​health, to produce what is lacking. Biomm will be on the market, offering insulin to our SUS at an affordable price, so that we can distribute it for free to Brazilians who suffer from diabetes.â€
The factory will have capacity for 20 million units of insulin glargine cartridges (refills) per year - and, subsequently, insulin pens. In addition, it will be able to manufacture 20 million vials of other biomedicines, such as recombinant human insulin.
The estimate is that the unit, with 12 thousand square meters of built area, will generate 300 direct jobs and 1.2 thousand indirect jobs, benefiting more than six thousand people.
During the event, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and Biomm signed a protocol of intentions to develop a mutual cooperation program, aimed at drug production platforms for the treatment of metabolic diseases.
The objective is to develop projects aligned with policies that seek to strengthen the Economic and Industrial Health Complex and greater autonomy for Brazil in the production of medicines for the Unified Health System.
The National Strategy for the Development of the Economic-Industrial Health Complex (CEIS), launched by President Lula in September 2023, aims to expand national production of priority items for the SUS, reduce Brazil's dependence on inputs, medicines, vaccines and other foreign health products and highlights the commitment to the demands of Brazilian society, integrating a new proposal for the country's industrialization, aimed at the inclusion of all people, with social and environmental sustainability and generation of jobs and income. The Minister of Health, NÃsia Trindade, highlighted the resumption of the strategy.
The pharmaceutical company Biomm obtained R$ 203 million in credit (Finep, BNDES AND BDMG), in addition to R$ 133 million contributed via equity (BNDES and BDMG) to implement the biopharmaceutical industrial unit in Nova Lima (MG). ■