Compounding pharmacies increase access to Cannabis in the interior – 10/13/2023 – Cannabis Inc.

Large metropolises have more access channels to medicinal products derived from Cannabis than cities located in the interior of Brazilian states. In this scenario, compounding pharmacies are making a difference mainly for populations in small municipalities. Despite not being authorized to sell products derived from the plant by Anvisa (Health Surveillance Agency), business owners are taking the issue to court and, through an injunction, are increasingly part of patients’ purchasing options.

For example, in Pirajú, a city with almost 30 thousand inhabitants, in the interior of São Paulo, Drogacentro has become a reference point for all the surrounding cities. Patients place orders at the counter and receive the formulated product at home. Since August last year, when the company obtained an injunction to manipulate CBD, sales have increased by 10%.

“Many customers asked if I could make the products, so I filed a lawsuit, which granted an injunction for me to sell the product”, says pharmacist Ana Paula Cury Francisco, 57 years old, owner of Drogacentro. “Before, doctors in the city didn’t prescribe because they knew how difficult it was for patients to get around,” says Ana Paula. “Now that’s changed.”

Roberta Travassos Gomes, 41 years old, owner of Acácia, a compounding pharmacy in Americana, has been trying to enter this market for six years. At the end of September, she finally got a court injunction and started working with Cannabis in the pharmacy.

“I believe in the plant’s potential as a medicine. It is another treatment strategy for diseases that do not respond to allopathic medicines”, says Roberta. One of the great advantages of manipulation highlighted by experts is the possibility of personalizing the treatment. Choose the flavor and vehicle: oil or capsule, for example.

“In 2019, when Anvisa published Resolution of the Collegiate Director 327, which regulates the commercialization of products derived from Cannabis in Brazil, compounding pharmacies were left out”, says lawyer Claudia Mano, founder of Farmacam, an association of compounding and homeopathy pharmacies.

“In 2021, we filed a collective action to reverse this situation,” says Claudia, who is still fighting in court. While the entity cannot reach a favorable decision, members file individual actions.

And this doesn’t just happen in the interior. The largest compounding pharmacy in the capital of São Paulo, Buenos Aires, for example, has already included CBD in its compounding product list. The sector hopes that they will be included in the market in the 327 review, which is about to come out. Injunctions are unstable legal tools, with the risk of being hunted, which leads to insecurity in business.

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