The phenomenon of judicial review, to guarantee access to high cost medicines, has been ongoing for more than 20 years in developed countries with universal and public healthcare. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, the national variation in access to treatment was tremendous, depending on the provision of the healthcare services or on the willingness of the courts to overturn the decisions denying treatments. It was known as the ‘postcode lottery’.1 This is a new ethical and political challenge for developing countries with universal and free healthcare systems, such as Brazil, Colombia, India or Turkey. There are now supreme court cases in most of these countries confronting the issue of how to allocate healthcare resources fairly, particularly access to high-cost medicines.
Disponível em: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2009.00260.x
