⚖️Cancer and high-cost care· 2012-2026
Court-ordered drugs: US$99 million paid in 2023
The Finance Ministry reported the State paid US$99 million in 2023 on court injunctions for high-priced medicines. Lawsuits rose from 331 in 2018 to 2,219 in 2025, according to PAHO.
Figure published by the sources
US$ 99 millones pagados en 2023 por amparos judiciales de medicamentos de alto precio y técnicas contra el MSP (Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, Rendición de Cuentas 2023)
Bodies involved
Ministerio de Salud Pública · Fondo Nacional de Recursos
What it is
The National Resources Fund (FNR) has financed high-cost medicines since 2005 using cost-effectiveness criteria: according to its legal adviser Leticia Gómez, coverage is set by weighing "the relationship between the cost and the result it gives the patient", in survival and quality of life. When a drug is not on that list, patients can claim it through an amparo, a fast-track court process. The debate is not new: back in 2015, 180.com.uy gathered opposing positions between jurists such as former Supreme Court president Leslie Van Rompaey and law professor Juan Ceretta, who see the amparo as a legitimate signal from society about insufficient public policy, and oncologist Lucía Delgado, then head of the national cancer control programme, who defended prioritising because funding every high-cost cancer drug would require, she said, some US$2.2 billion.
What is questioned
In the explanatory memorandum to the 2023 Rendición de Cuentas, the Ministry of Economy and Finance reported "an amount of US$99 million in court injunctions against the MSP" in 2023, against US$128 million in 2022, out of total spending on high-priced medicines of $6 billion pesos —US$153 million, 0.2% of 2023 GDP— of which 48.5% was financed through the FNR. The share of injunctions within that spending went from 2% in 2012 to 51% in 2019, 60% in 2021, 59% in 2022 and 52% in 2023. The ministry added that "52% of injunction spending on high-priced medicines is concentrated in 3 laboratories (one of which absorbs 28.4%)" and that "43% of total spending was concentrated in 5 products, out of a total of 150 products". The Pan American Health Organization reported in July 2026 that "amparo proceedings went from 331 in 2018 to 2,219 in 2025, and in the first half of 2026 a further 1,328 new actions had already been recorded".
Why it matters to you
Every peso paid out under a court ruling is subtracted from the budget that funds treatment for everyone. Economy Minister Azucena Arbeleche said in 2024 that the medicines the Health Ministry must buy to comply with injunctions "it has to buy at prices that turn out to be excessive", and that access through the courts "is not equitable, because those who obtain it are those able to bring a claim before the courts": the same money reaches fewer patients.
Where it stands
The Finance Ministry itself said spending growth decelerated in 2023 (0.7%) and attributed this to price-negotiation policies and to bringing medicines into universal coverage. On 9 July 2026, with PAHO support, the Health Ministry led by Minister Cristina Lustemberg convened an inter-institutional session to build a roadmap on access to high-cost medicines, with representatives of the Supreme Court, of the legislature's health committees and of the national human rights institution, among others. It was reported there that the FNR covers 45 conditions and finances 87 medicines, and that in 2025 it financed 14,474 treatments with an annual budget close to US$460 million. As of this file's closing date (August 2026) no subsequent resolutions are on record.
The open-data cross-reference
Open this set in the explorerWhat the state awarded to the bodies and companies named in this file, according to the official Compras Estatales data. It is a cross-reference for scale, not proof of irregularity: it includes contracts nobody questioned.
How this cross-reference was builteverything recorded under the body's buying unit (not only this case) · between 2012 and 2026
Who was paid
Suppliers ranked by amount awarded in the cross-reference. A contract with several suppliers counts in full against each one: this is a ceiling, not a split.
What it bought
Spending by category, from price times quantity of each awarded item, in the contract currency.
Contracts per year
The detail
The largest contracts in the cross-reference, high to low. Tap one for its record and the link to the official purchase.
- VACUNA ANTI INFLUENZADIRECCION GENERAL DE SECRETARIA DEL M.S.P. · 03 ago. 2020$ 22,6 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALCABINSUR SOCIEDAD ANONIMA · 25 ene. 2021$ 9,9 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALCABINSUR SOCIEDAD ANONIMA · 15 may. 2020$ 4 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALROCHE INTERNATIONAL LTD · 29 abr. 2020$ 2,4 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALCABINSUR SOCIEDAD ANONIMA · 21 oct. 2020$ 2 M
- INSUMOS PARA EQUIPO DE EXTRACCION AUTOMATICO DE ADN Y ARNTRESUL S.A. · 25 jun. 2020$ 971.763
- IMPRESION DE FORMULARIODIRECCION NACIONAL DE IMPRESIONES Y PUBLICACIONES · 07 dic. 2021$ 513.400
- DISEÑO Y REALIZACION DE CAMPAÑA PUBLICITARIAMARRERO GARMENDIA ANDRES ALFREDO · 04 ago. 2020$ 357.650
- BOLSO EN LONA O SIMILARARESCHE BUFFO ALEJO · 25 mar. 2021$ 164.730
- IMPRESION DE FOLLETOSDIRECCION NACIONAL DE IMPRESIONES Y PUBLICACIONES · 02 set. 2020$ 10.372
- PAPEL PARA IMPRESORA Y/O FOTOCOPIADORA 75 G/M2MEDIZA LINARES RAFAEL MIGUEL · 29 mar. 2021$ 6.954
Amounts in pesos, normalised. Records with impossible quantities are excluded from the total. Injunction payments are not executed as tendered purchases: they are complied with under court order and largely through the FNR, a non-state public entity. This spending is therefore expected to be absent, or only partly present, in the state procurement search.