Everyone has noticed the large number of pharmacies in Brazil. Is it really true or just an impression? I'm going to walk down one of the main streets in Lyon, the third largest city in France, to see how many pharmacies I can find in an approximately 15-minute walk.
I'm going to do the same on Rua do Catete, in Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil. For each city that appears, a signal will ring. In the end, we will see who wins this dispute and reflect a little on the reasons for the result.
Let's walk down one of Lyon's main streets to see how many pharmacies there are along it. Here, seeing how many pharmacies there are in Rio de Janeiro, on Rua do Catete, one of the main streets that runs through Flamengo, Catete and also passes through Largo do Machado. Republic Street.
Let's start here. A pharmacy will appear and I'll say: 'Pharmacy there, one. ' Here, walking, the first one on the right side, Drgaria Venancio.
The first one here, on the left, is a pharmacy. Here is the second pharmacy. Drgasmil.
Here's one more. Riofarma. Three pharmacies.
It's on the corner, actually. A pharmacy here, on the corner. Here's one more: Damn Raia.
Fourth. Today, here is a Saturday morning. Therefore, people are more comfortable.
Here's one more. Another Riofarma. Riofarma.
Second pharmacy here, appearing on the right. Here is Friday, April 26, 2024. Cumani.
Another pharmacy. Cumani Drgstores. Here, another one around the corner.
Drgasmil. Drgasmil is on the corner. There, on the other side, on the left, there is one more: Riofarma.
You can look from here. Riofarma. One more.
I'm going to follow the sidewalk on the right here. One more here in front. Pacheco.
One more, Pacheco. And on the other side there is one more: Venancio. Around the corner, there.
These pharmacies here in Rio, besides being many, are always very full and have queues. In Lyon, I saw pharmacies usually empty and without queues. There, on the other side, on the left, there is another one, Riofarma.
I don't know if you can see it clearly from here because of the sun. Even though it's not even on Rua da República, we're going to count another pharmacy because it's in the field of vision on the left. There.
. . It's another street, but let's count it.
And here, continuing. Here on the right, one more there: Pacheco. And on the Pacheco side, I will consider it because in Lyon it was in the field of vision too, I considered one that wasn't even on the street.
So here, to be the same rule, we see it there. Here next to the supermarket, there is one more. In the Extra market, there is another pharmacy, Ultrafarma.
And next door there is Riofarma. Here's one more, Venancio It's already finished, there's one more. Here.
And here we come to the end of this walk to check how many pharmacies there are in Flamengo and Catete. We have reached the end of our journey on this main street in Lyon. And we only found three pharmacies, three.
Final result: three pharmacies in Lyon and 16 in Rio. The result would be similar if the test were carried out in other cities across Brazil. The WHO recommends one pharmacy for every 10,000 inhabitants.
In Brazil, the ratio is one for 1,800 inhabitants. There are 122 thousand pharmacies in the country. In the first half of 2023, the city of Rio alone opened 173 new units.
In France, there are 19,966 pharmacies, and the number is decreasing. That's 2 thousand less than ten years ago. The current average is one pharmacy for 3,404 inhabitants, almost double the ratio in Brazil.
So, how can we explain so many pharmacies in Brazil? One of the causes is self-medication: 89% of people aged 16 or over take medicine on their own in Brazil. There are also allegations of heavy marketing.
In March, a report from the UOL portal reported that the pharmaceutical industry, in six years, spent R$200 million in Minas Gerais, on trips, meals and expensive gifts for doctors. According to the same report, a manufacturer would have spent almost R$1 million to take 21 doctors from Minas Gerais to an event in New York. The invitations would have been directed to professionals who had most applied the company's products.
And there's more. In 2023, Procon de Minas sentenced a pharmacy to pay a fine of 8 million reais for making discounts on the purchase of medicines conditional on providing the CPF. Another UOL report showed that a pharmacy chain passed on customer registration and consumption data to a marketing company.
Data from Anvisa shows that 80% of notifications about products and services related to health surveillance were the result of drug poisoning. According to the Pharmaoffer platform, from the Netherlands, Brazil is the country in the world with the most pharmacies, followed by the United States, Japan, France and Germany. Many doctors warn that medicines taken indiscriminately can cause other illnesses that will require more medicines.
The result of this? More pharmacies.
