OBJECTIVES: There is a known concern of health researchers and public managers in Brazil with the population's access to medicines.  We quantified the public expenditure on medicines in Brazil, during the period of 2005 to 2008.  METHODS: The expenditure on medicines comes from a data warehouse of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management that stores the information concerning any purchase made by the Brazilian Federal Government. We also computed the amounts transferred to official laboratories to produce medicines. Information on the states, Federal District and municipalities came from the Information System on Public Health Budget (SIOPS).  RESULTS: In the period 2005 to 2008, the public spending with drugs rose from US$ 1.8 billion to US$ 2.0 billion in real terms, with an average annual growth equivalent to 3%. The average spending in this period was US$ 1.8 billion. Most of the spending on medicines is attributed to the Federal Government, with values exceeding US$ 835 million per year. Just under half of the expenditure is given to states and municipalities. Considering only the federal spending, the “strategic component” represents the largest share, with participation from 56%-64% in the period. This result is expected, since the Ministry of Health is responsible for funding all the medicines from the “strategic component” of pharmaceutical care which includes, among others, the antiretroviral drugs and blood products. The amounts of transfers to official laboratories ranged between 20-25% of drug costs.  CONCLUSIONS: The expenditure for those pharmaceutical care programs whose purchases are centralized at the federal Ministry of Health, didn’t show a significant increase in the period of 2005-2008.  Rather, the evidence suggests relative stability of procurement of medicines from pharmaceutical care programs under the Federal Government's responsibility in this period.