Project that punishes pharmacy that sells prescription data advances in the Chamber

The penalty for the infraction includes interdiction and cancellation of authorization to operate the company. It also provides for a warning and fine.

Vote by the rapporteur on the Health Commission, deputy Jandira Feghali (PCdoB-RJ), cites a report from Facto News. In December, the Facto News revealed a medical prescription surveillance scheme, which begins in pharmacies and ends in pharmaceutical industries.

In one year, pharmacies store 250 million prescriptions, without the doctor’s consent, the report showed. The data allows us to know what each doctor prescribes – active ingredient, brand, generic or not, in what quantity.

Data is purchased by pharmaceutical companies, which try to convince doctors to prescribe their brands. The relationship between pharmaceutical companies and doctors includes visits, free samples, dinners, gifts and payment for travel to conferences.

Those involved do not deny the practice. According to them, everything is within the law and contributes to bringing knowledge to health professionals. In pharmacies, data on what the doctor prescribed is entered into a database. Then, the information goes to two data companies. They are then sold to the industry.

Six years after the sanction of the LGPD (General Data Protection Law), the practice of making data available that should be confidential remains unpunished. This is according to an article published by the Facto News portal, in December 2023.
Jandira Feghali, federal deputy (PCdoB-RJ) and rapporteur of the bill at the Health Committee of the Chamber of Deputies

This information is being passed on to representatives of pharmaceutical laboratories who, in possession of this data, question doctors about why they chose a certain medicine, or a certain laboratory.
Alice Portugal, federal deputy (PCdoB-RJ), justifying the bill