The Drug Technology Institute (Farmanguinhos/Fiocruz) celebrated 20 years of the Drug Technology Complex (CTM), in Jacarepaguá, bringing together representatives and partners from private and public pharmaco-chemical laboratories and industries, from Fiocruz institutions, and the entire workforce of the unit. The campus covers an area of 105,000 square meters and was acquired in August 2004, expanding its production capacity to up to 3 billion pharmaceutical units, including tablets, capsules and liquids.
Director Jorge Mendonça highlighted the growth of the Institute over these 20 years. “At first the size of the campus scared me, but I also realized how much Farmanguinhos could grow. In addition to maintaining our goal of supplying drugs for neglected diseases and HIV, we have also included new classes of drugs, such as immunosuppressants. In the future we will also produce cancer drugs. Looking ahead, we will focus on further expanding our portfolio with technologies and drugs that deliver quality, safety and efficacy”, he stated.
Núbia Boechat, vice-director of Education, Research and Innovation, was in charge of acquiring the complex when she was in the director’s chair, from 2003 to 2005. During the ceremony, Boechat talked about the challenges of her trajectory and the importance of her decision for the government-run production of drugs in Brazil.
“Buying a factory is not just a physical expansion, it’s also a strategic movement that requires sensitivity, vision, and, first and foremost, a lot of courage. This story is not just about technical or operational progresses, it’s the narrative of a woman who, against all odds, ascended to leadership positions in a sector that is traditionally dominated by men. Balancing two worlds, bringing together cutting-edge science and industrial efficiency, has been, for twenty years, a challenge that demands collaboration, creativity and, in particular, firm leadership. I gave the first steps necessary for a great leap and the others who came after me turned the CTM into the great plant it is today”, said Boechat. Hayne Felipe, Farmanguinhos director between 2009 and 2017 and current director of FioSaúde, also attended the event and talked about how Productive Development Partnerships (PDPs) have been crucial for the expansion of the institution’s portfolio.
The CTM had a significant impact on the history of the Institute and on the deliveries to the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), such as the supplying of more than 600 million pharmaceutical units in 2023. It’s also important to highlight the benefits that the institute’s actions have brought to the communities around it. Lidiane Barbosa, coordinator of the Grupo Alfazendo, talked about projects Horta Pedagógica (Pedagogical Garden), Se Essa Rua Fosse Minha (If This Street Were Mine), and the most recent, Verde que te Quero Ver (The Green I Want to See), implemented in a partnership with Fiotec in schools and streets of Cidade de Deus.
Ariadne Costa, director of the Arts Hub of the Silveira Sampaio School, in Curicica, presented the work carried out by the hub and thanked for the partnership with Farmanguinhos and Fiotec, which resulted in the donation of computers for the modernization and continuity of projects involving literary and visual arts, dance, music and theater. In line with the institution’s sustainability values, about 200 PET bottles and bottle caps consumed during the event were sent to the Eco Far project, to recycling cooperatives and to Rio Ecopets.
Source: Fiocruz News Agency (AFN).
