Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday praised funding for advanced technology related to health care and called for more investment in the pharmaceutical industry.

Lula spoke during the inauguration of a pharmaceutical unit belonging to Cristalia Laboratory, funded by the Brazilian Development Bank.

“I’m extremely proud to see a Brazilian company becoming more competitive in the international market,” Lula said. “We want to see the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil to become highly competitive so that we do not need to import certain drugs to save lives.”

The new Cristalia plant will produce drugs that are on the medicine list of the Brazilian Public Health System. The expectation is that with domestic production, drugs will be available at a lower cost.

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