SA Panel: ‘Even though I sell medicines, I believe in prevention and vaccine’, says pharmaceutical

Waiting for resolutions for an emergency release of its antiviral against Covid, the CEO of pharmaceutical MSD Brasil, Hugo Nisenbom, says that, even though he sells medicine against the disease, he believes in prevention and that all leaders should encourage vaccination.

“You can say that prevention makes less medicine sell. My sense is that all people who have a leadership position, whether in the press, in companies or in health decision makers, we have to focus on science and take care of people”, it says.

How far is the MSD antiviral? The product has already been approved by several major agencies like Japan, UK. The pandemic is worse than ever with the explosion of the omicron. This variant is less aggressive, but the total number of patients is greater.

In the last few days, some very important things have happened. Independent studies have shown the product to be effective against the micron. It will play an important role, because it is an oral, anticipated treatment. It is the ideal product, at least, for the risk group, elderly people, with comorbidities.
It has no interaction with other drugs, and risk patients usually take other drugs.

It’s in Brazil? We have already submitted the dossier to the regulatory agency. There are some questions from the agency. And we hope that, as early as February, we can have a statement with an emergency authorization.

That’s the first thing. The second is that we had already been working and we are very advanced in a negotiation with Fiocruz to give access, that is, with an agreement in which we are basically going to transfer part of the technology not only from manufacturing, but also the idea is to be able to carry out other studies .

And obviously, once approved, we’re informing the government. And he will make the decision, we hope, to incorporate the SUS. It should be the logical sequence for Brazil.

Making a deal like this requires a lot of negotiation, a lot of small print, a lot of parties involved. And that’s pretty much at the end. It’s being reviewed. And the regulatory part too. We hope that in the coming days, have good news.

Would it be produced here in Brazil? In the beginning, it would come from the United States, to then open transfers of some productive parts little by little. The agreement makes the product much more accessible, according to the country’s conditions.

We signed an agreement with the United Nations to offer the patent free of charge to 115 poor countries. Who can pay more, like the US, pays. Those who can pay less or pay less.

Our idea is to give access to this product because we believe it is our responsibility. And it’s a company contribution to an unmet medical need.

Even though I sell medicine, I believe in prevention. Brazil was a model and had a drop in vaccination rates for other non-Covid vaccines. It is necessary to prevent the return of diseases that already have an approved vaccine. There is a loss of focus, but the drop in other vaccines is dramatic.

In 2019, he had a giant problem with measles, because they stopped vaccinating in some places. You have to encourage the population.

The vaccine was politicized in Brazil, including by President Bolsonaro. Mr. Are you afraid that an antiviral drug will also be politicized with the message that it is no longer necessary to take a vaccine? The whole world is politicized, I don’t know why. I am PhD in biochemistry. Honestly, I believe in facts.

At MSD, founder George Merck said that medicine and science are for patients, they have to be a priority, and profit has to be a consequence of doing the right thing. So, even if it is a decision that is not commercially good, I always put the patient first.

I don’t know what’s going on in politics, I’m not an expert, I’m not Brazilian, but I see in other countries around the world that people take positions according to their beliefs, according to anti-vaccination groups or political beliefs. What I do know is that I want my children and parents to be vaccinated. And myself, I have all the vaccines, and obviously, I have the three doses against Covid and I will have the fourth when it comes.

I believe in prevention. If I were the minister of health, I would do three things: I would provide drinking water to everyone, I would teach a healthy life with food and exercise, and I would vaccinate against everything.

Vaccines are not the biggest part of our business. They can say that prevention makes selling less medicine. My sense is that all the people who have a leadership position, whether in the press, in companies or in health decision makers, we have to look at science and take care of people.

What would be the size of the antiviral market in Brazil? We don’t have many figures, because this market is starting in the world. There are studies in several countries. And Brazil has great potential for the use of this product, with a population of over 200 million people. And there are thousands of cases of Covid a day.

Ideally, this treatment should be forwarded by the government so that everyone has access. It will depend on government decisions. What is clear is that it is cost-effective compared to any hospitalization.

X-ray

President of MSD Brazil, the executive has been with the company for 25 years, where he took over the management in 2016. He is a pharmacist with a master’s and doctoral degree in biochemistry and an MBA in management. He started his career in Argentina and worked in several MSD subsidiaries in Latin America. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Interfarma