[From community pharmacies to big pharmacy chains: private provision of medicines, health system, and financialization of the Brazilian retail pharmacy market].

The provision of medicines in Brazil is marked by the predominance of private expenditures and supply in pharmacies and by the historically liberal regulation of retail drug sales. The first two decades of the 21st century witnessed the expansion and concentration of the retail pharmaceutical sector and growing financialization of the health sector. The article analyzes the characteristics of financialization of Brazilian retail pharmaceutical companies, considering the following three crosscutting dimensions: ownership structure, financial/accounting, and political.