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Brazil
Fast Facts
Capital: Brasillia
Economy: World's 6th largest by nominal GDP. Nominal GDP US$2.492 trillion, 2012
Health Expenditure: 8.4% of GDP, 2011
Population: 211.5 million, 2017
Average Life Span: 71.9 yrs, 2011
Languages: Portugese
Adult Literacy Rate: 88.6%
Health Trends
Lifestyle diseases increasingly resemble those of the United States and Europe such as obesity, heart disease, and cancer which are on the rise in the major cities
Although the disease profile is shifting, some typical developing country diseases can still be found in some areas
Only about 25% of Brazilians have private health insurance
Medical assistance is popular among companies, which allocate about 6% of payroll to healthcare
Healthcare is free (public), however there are long waiting periods for procedures
Shortages of doctors and hospitals in smaller cities
Clinical Trial Landscape
Brazil is the 7th pharmaceutical market with sales of US$20 billion in 2011. The expectation is that the country will be the 6th largest market in 2015 according to IMS Health
There is a wide range of ethnic influences: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, and Japanese, making the country a large melting-pot and suitable for the study of many different diseases
Population is very concentrated in the main cities, facilitating the access to patients, despite the size of the country
Approximately half of the trials taking place in Brazil are manned by CROs and almost all of them are headquartered in Sao Paulo
Brazil has its own CRO association called,“ABRACRO”, launched in 2006
Top Therapeutic areas: oncology, diabetes, cardiovascular, rheumatology, infectious diseases, transplants, pulmonology, CNS and ophthalmology
Hospitals within the cities are very large, some with 1000 beds so trials only need to have a few key hospitals signed up as sites
The largest hospital in Latin America is in Sao Paulo (Hospital das Clinicas de Sao Paulo) with 2200 beds
Experienced and highly motivated investigators. Many trained in US and Europe. Most speak English
Advantage with the reversal of the seasons thus companies can test seasonally induced diseases
There is a strong doctor-patient relationship which contributes to excellent enrollment and retention rates