The combination of scientific advances and economic improvement has had a marked impact on
the Brazilian pharmaceutical market, which has increased 10-fold in the past 20 years and now ranks fifth in the world, with annual sales of about $ 12 billion.
For example, the best national
pharmaceutical companies are starting to invest in the validation of plant - derived medicines in an attempt to lay claim to new medicines and compete with the conventional imported compounds, which make up over 70 % of the
Brazilian market.