*Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Health Minister Nísia Trindade, and other government officials have inaugurated an insulin production plant in Nova Lima municipality, within the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state. The facility is owned by Brazilian biotechnology company Biomm and, according to a government press release, the plant is expected to produce around 20m doses per year of insulin glargine, which is used to manage diabetes. At the inauguration event, Trindade highlighted the importance of increasing domestic pharmaceutical production to supply the national health system (SUS), which provides free medication for diabetes through government subsidies from the ‘Farmácia Popular’ programme, first created in 2004 during Lula’s previous presidency (2003-2011). In September last year, Lula launched another funding programme for the pharmaceutical sector. Boosting Brazil’s medical-industrial complex was also declared a priority in the national reindustrialisation programme launched in January this year.
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