National Pharmaceutical Policy and the Health Economic-Industrial Complex: influences and invisibilities

Abstract In 2024, we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the National Pharmaceutical Policy (PNAF), which involves actions to promote, protect, and restore health, with the population’s access to medicines and their rational use as an essential part of its principles. This intersectoral policy is strategic for including SUS demands in the agenda of other sectors with impacts on the field of Health, including those that are part of the Health Economic-Industrial Complex (CEIS). Given its characteristics, this study aimed to identify the PNAF’s influence in CEIS-related public policies from 2004 to 2024 to improve such policies. We adopted the model developed by Walt and Gilson (1994) to analyze public policies, identifying contexts proposed by Araújo Júnior and Maciel Filho (2001) and the typology of policies proposed by Walt (1994). The results showed the PNAF’s principles and strategic lines in 17 CEIS-and-Health-related sectoral policies over 20 years, with notable invisibilities from 2017 to April 2023.