Judicialization of medicines: effectiveness of rights or break in public policies?

Objective: To analyze whether lawsuits for medicines filed against the state of Rio Grande do Norte agree with medical-sanitary and pharmaceutical assistance management criteria established by the public policies of access to medicines in force in Brazil.

Methods: This is a descriptive and retrospective study of the individual lawsuits that claimed medicines in the state of Rio Grande do Norte between 2013 and 2017. Information was collected from the procedural documents on the requested medicines, the diagnoses referred and the origin of the medical prescription, in order to analyze medical-sanitary and pharmaceutical assistance management characteristics.