Panel SA: Sales of chloroquine and ivermectin interrupt downward trajectory

The sale of medicines from the so-called Covid kit interrupted the strong downward trajectory that had been registered in recent months. The data closed in November by the consulting firm Iqvia, which monitors pharmaceutical retail, point to a new impetus in the demand for products such as chloroquine and ivermectin, which have no proven efficacy against the disease, but were recommended by Bolsonaro in the pandemic.

Chloroquine sales, which had fallen since May, reached 96,200 units in November, 200 more than in October. Ivermectin, a dewormer for scabies and lice, rose nearly 100,000 units, to 1.1 million.

The movement coincides with the news of the arrival of the omicron variant in other countries, at the end of last month, and the perspective of arrival in Brazil.

The peak of sales of the two drugs was in March of this year, when the country registered more than 3,000 daily deaths by Covid. That month, nearly 470,000 units of chloroquine were sold, out of a total of approximately 4 million since the start of the pandemic, and 15.6 million of ivermectin, out of nearly 101 million cases sold so far, according to Iqvia.

With Andressa Motter e Ana Luiza Tieghi