The Chilean Pharmaceutical Policy was an attempt in the 1960s and 1970s to introduce a rational national pharmaceuticals policy.

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

was perhaps the first country in the world to introduce the concept of a limited number of essential drugs. In 1965 the government of President Eduardo Frei took measures to rationalise drug supply and use and in 1967, a

national formulary A formulary is a list of pharmaceutical drugs, often decided upon by a group of people, for various reasons such as insurance coverage or use at a medical facility. Traditionally, a formulary contained a collection of formulas for the compoundin ...

with a limited list of drugs came into being. In 1970,

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

was elected to power and rationalisation of the pharmaceutical supply system continued. The next step was to organise centralised bulk procurement. The first international tender for raw materials was called in 1971. However, the

pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...

struck back: in the three months following the call for tender, widely used drugs, including

analgesics An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It ...

and

antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...

, disappeared from the market. The manufacturers had cut their production. They agreed to replenish the market within one week only if the international tenders were called off. In 1972, the government was forced to succumb and called off the tenders. In 1973, the government of Allende was toppled and the first essential drug programme hitherto known was dead.

See also