Brazilian Federal Law 12.401/2011 created the National Committee for Health Technology Incorporation (CONITEC) and defined criteria and deadlines for health technology (HT) incorporation in public health system (SUS). CONITEC advises the Brazilian Ministry of Health about HT incorporation or disinvestment in SUS and clinical guidelines development. After CONITEC appraises and recommends a technology, it should be available for the population in 180 days. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the time between a technology was recommended by CONITEC and actually became available. METHODS: We reviewed all CONITEC's reports since 2012, and selected those regarding drugs. Reports were classified in not recommended and recommended, and publication date was retrieved for those recommended. Simultaneously, we evaluated the date a drug recommended by CONITEC was received by the Centro de Medicamentos Básicos do Paraná (CEMEPAR), which is responsible for buying and distributing medications in Paraná. The time between report publication and drug availability was then assessed.  RESULTS:

CONITEC published 125 reports since 2012, 93 on drugs and 42 classified as recommended. These 42 represented 62 drugs with different pharmacologic concentrations. From these, it was the Paraná state's liability to distribute 45, which were then selected for the analysis. The majority of cases (64.4%) were in non-conformity with established deadlines: 55.5% were unavailable at CEMEPAR before 180 days, and 8.9% were never bought until the day of this analysis (February 06^th, 2015). The longest time between drug recommendation and its availability at CEMEPAR was 2 years and 73 days (salmeterol 50mcg) and the minimum was 13 days (adalimumab 40mg). Average time for a drug to be available for distribution was 315.3 days (135.3 days beyond the established deadline). CONCLUSIONS:

This study shows that mere recommendation by CONITEC doesn't guarantee access for the population in the timeframe established. Reasons should be investigated.