Source: Correio Braziliense - Letters, 07/09/2007

In view of the article “Urgency for drug screening” (6/8, p. 25), by André Montoro, president of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO), I would like to inform you that it is going through a conclusive phase in the Constitution, Justice Commission and Citizenship (CCJ) of the Senate Bill No. 6.672, of my authorship, which creates the tracking of the production and consumption of medicines by the bar code. If the matter is approved by the commission, it will go to presidential sanction. The project, approved by all the committees of the Chamber, was prepared after the conclusions of the work of the CPI dos Medicamentos, in 2000, in which, as a deputy and a pharmacist, I participated with dedication. Its definitive approval and the sanction are of fundamental importance so that we can get to know the profile of the use of medicines in the country and even more quickly identify the trade in counterfeit medicines, guaranteeing safeguards to the health of Brazilians. Therefore, I congratulate the author of the article and ask him to expose the problem, with the same emphasis, to the noble senators of the CCJ.

Vanessa Grazziotin, federal deputy for the PCdoB of Amazonas