El impacto y los propulsores de la exclusión farmacéutica como ejemplo de violencia estructural

Abstract

The recent covid-19 pandemic has evidenced structural violence that has been invisible or, at least, socially banalized for years. By October 2022, on the European continent, 69.42% of the population had complete or partial access to the initial vaccination protocol. A significantly higher percentage than 30.07 per cent of the African continent. This text presents this inequality in access to essential medicines: pharmaceutical exclusion. An object of study developed in a doctoral thesis that aimed to represent this violence through a case study of the events produced in Galicia between 2013 and 2015 around the exclusion of the population with hepatitis C from the treatment of Sovaldi. A case analysis whose methodology was based on in-depth interviews with the people affected. This study allowed us to reaffirm that this case was a clear example of exclusion and ended up putting maximum profit before the satisfaction of vital human needs. A statement that the situation of the pandemic and vaccines came to light again and invites us to reflect on the meaning we give to medicines, disease, and our own lives.