title: [Chiral Drugs: from the chemical dimension to political discussion]
abstract: Conceptual aspects regarding chiral drugs are discussed referring to enantiomerically pure substances, containing only one isomer, with optical orientation to the right (R) or left (S). Impact on world market, that means today over US$ 35 billions, or near 20% of total market with chiral drugs, is discussed as significative of actual trends. Growing expansion of this matter makes us think that there exists a clear trend that will lead chiral drugs to represent a new form of market domination, mainly regarding patent protection and bypassing crescent generic drug market policies. Finally, the question regarding chiral drugs and racemic mixtures is arised, calling attention for the need to incorporate this chemical dimension within health policy discussion, also considering brazilian capacity in research centers and universities.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21041-210, Brasil.
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bermudez
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barragat