Anvisa director wants to extend term and prevent appointment of Queiroga’s advisor

Doctor Cristiane Jourdan Gomes, director of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency), is trying to extend her mandate at the regulatory body at a time when the government is working to place lawyer Daniel Meirelles, advisor to Minister Marcelo Queiroga (Health) in the same position. .

Gomes’ idea is only to leave the agency on November 4, 2025, despite the fact that the end of his term is scheduled for July 24.

She argues that the government erred in interpreting the new law on regulatory agencies and setting the time of its administration.

Gomes called the case a “legal aberration.” She is still awaiting a response from the AGU (Advocacy-General of the Union) to the question she made about her term of office.

If not, he says he plans to go to court. “I’m going to judicialize. And of course, judicialization is not a guarantee [a mudança no mandato]but it puts the facts in evidence within a legal process,” she told sheet.

Meirelles, on the other hand, was suggested by Bolsonaro to the position of director of Anvisa on Monday (4), within the package with 21 nominations for agencies and municipalities.

This Tuesday (5), the CAS (Commission on Social Affairs) of the Senate approved the name of Meirelles in an atypical Saturday, without any questions asked to the candidate.

In 2020, when he was deputy director at ANS, Meirelles participated in the hiring process for the agency of a daughter of Braga Netto, a former defense minister and possible candidate for vice president on Bolsonaro’s ticket.

After negative repercussions, the hiring process was interrupted.

Sinagencias (National Union of Servants of National Regulatory Agencies) had questioned the government about possible cross nepotism. That’s because Daniel Meirelles is the brother of Thiago Meirelles, at the time executive secretary of the Civil House, a portfolio that was under the command of Braga Netto and that would give approval to the hiring.

The lawyer’s brother currently works at Planalto as deputy head of Articulation and Monitoring.

Meirelles still needs to be approved by the Senate floor and nominated by Bolsonaro to reach Anvisa. He should only take office after the end of Gomes’ term, that is, in July, according to the current rules.

In December, at the request of the director, the Anvisa prosecutor prepared an opinion advocating “repairs” to the appointment decree to extend the mandate until November 2025.

The agency linked to the AGU says that Gomes’ term should be five years. The current interpretation is that she should only stay at the agency for the remaining time in the mandate of Antonio Barra Torres, who left a director’s chair in 2020 to become the agency’s president.

Barra Torres even sent Gomes’ opinion to the Civil House and asked for a review of the director’s term of office.

The text that defends the extension of Gomes’ mandate, however, caused discomfort at Anvisa. The other directors did not know and did not approve the opinion in a collegiate meeting, that is, the document did not become an institutional position of the agency.

The chance to change Gomes’ term of office still raised doubts about how the other directors would be impacted.

That’s because there is a “non-coincidence of terms” rule in the new agencies law, which could force other directors to leave the regulatory body sooner than anticipated.

Gomes states that he did not provoke the discussion about the term of office of the other directors. “It is an interpretation made to those who are interested. The opinion is restricted to the request for rectification of my term of office”, she said.

The doctor commands the board of Anvisa responsible for the analysis of pesticides, health products, cigarettes and cosmetics.

Members of Anvisa and the government point out that the government leader in the Chamber, Ricardo Barros (PP-PR), supports the expansion of Gomes’ mandate, which she denies.

“He is not my supporter. He is a person I admire a lot, in terms of political action, a great politician, perhaps one of the greatest politicians of our time. He is not my supporter. My supporter is God”, said the director.

In February 2021, in an interview with the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, Barros spoke of “framing” Anvisa in the face of delay in the approval for vaccines against Covid.

Anvisa came to be seen as a barrier to the government by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). He even threatened to expose the names of the agency’s servers who acted in the release of Pfizer’s vaccine for children. He also suggested that there were interests in the approval of immunizations against the coronavirus.

In response, Barra Torres demanded the president’s retraction.

Gomes was a campaigner for phosphoethanolamine, the “cancer pill”, and, before joining Anvisa, shared posts on social media in defense of medicines such as hydroxychloroquine.

At the agency, he did not publicly defend the ineffective treatments and supported the regulator’s reactions to Bolsonaro’s attacks. The chances of Gomes being able to extend his mandate are considered small by government officials.

All five of Anvisa’s current directors were appointed by Bolsonaro, although the agency is now seen by the president as a political enemy.

In 2021, the government still gave up two suggestions to Anvisa, among them Roberto Dias, who would later end up being exonerated from the position of Director of Logistics at the Ministry of Health, amid investigations into alleged irregularities in the purchase of vaccines.