Patent breach: discussions and deliberations in National Health Conferences

Abstract

The 8th National Health Conference, held in 1986, was the great milestone in society's participation in the debates and deliberations of public health policy, a space that also resulted in the health chapter of the 1988 Federal Constitution, with the understanding of social determination health and the need to guarantee rights to all people. Within the scope of the Health Policy, pharmaceutical assistance is included, which incorporates the perspective of national sovereignty, investment in science and technology, to guarantee medicines and inputs in a regulated manner, with paths to equity of access, having as its structuring axis the right health, which includes a relevant discussion: compulsory licensing, popularly known as “patent breaking”. In this sense, this article aimed to outline the debates and proposals approved at the National Health Conferences regarding the “breaking of patents”. To this end, it will be a documentary, exploratory-analytical study, which will list, based on the appearance of the words 'patent' or 'licensing' that will be highlighted in a graph, the central ideas and synthesis discourses found in the documents analyzed as a discursive practice in the proposals approved and included in the Final Reports of the National Health Conferences (from the 8th to the 16th). In the historical path through the National Health Conferences, from the 8th onwards, the proposals reflected - reflect - the socio-historical-political-cultural context in which they are inserted. The essential role of the people in the fight for rights and the construction and deliberation of public policies is highlighted, institutionally through Councils and Conferences.