Health policy and hepatites C response in comparative perspective

• Grant number: 19/25141-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: February 01, 2020
• End date: January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Administration - Public Administration
• Principal Investigator: Elize Massard da Fonseca
• Grantee: Luísa Bolaffi Arantes
• Host Institution: Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (EAESP). Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/18604-5 - Policies to increase the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical sector: Brazil's experience, AP.JP
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/15011-1 - Spain's response to COVID-19: regionalism, decentralization and coordination, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

One of the critical problems of contemporary health systems is how to provide access to life-saving direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) to treat the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Given the promising results of such therapies, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a strategy to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health emergency, but only a small group of countries have taken serious steps towards improving their prevention and treatment policies. Both, Brazil and Spain, have committed to the WHO initiative; however, these countries adopted different policies and mechanism as well as mobilized different actors and achieved different results. In addition, both countries have been neglected in the literature of comparative healthcare systems, challenging well-known typologies that explore the evolution of social protection - such as Esping-Anderson, "Three World of Capitalism". This study will compare access to high-cost medicines in both countries in the context of economic crisis, public health emergency, and mobilization: How do access to medicines have been granted in these two healthcare systems? This is a qualitative, comparative research. (AU)