Public administrators are always concerned in reducing the costs of drug purchases. This article analyzes the coverage and costs of the Paraná Health Consortium (CPS) which was created to purchase drugs for municipalities of the state of Paraná, Brazil. Coverage included the participating municipalities and their populations. The costs of the acquired drugs were compared to the values available in the Price Database of the Health Department (BP/MS). Until the end of 2000, the CPS had covered 88.2% of the municipalities and 55.6% of the Paraná population. Among the participating municipalities, 83.5% had fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. The prices of 55 items available on the purchase list of the CPS and in the BP/ MS were compared: 46 were lower, one was the same and eight were higher than those of the BP/MS. Acquisition by the consortium has cost R$ 332,397.70 (29.7%) less than that by the BP/MS standards. The implementation of the CPS was found to be a good administrative strategy of pharmacoeconomics which led to agility and rationality in the use of financial resources, allowing wider access of the population to drugs.
management strategy; public health; service coverage; drug costs; shared purchases; pharmacoeconomics; drug consortium
