Brazil, Paraguay strengthen border health control

Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency, Anvisa, and Paraguay’s National Health Surveillance Directorate, Dinavisa, signed a new memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation between the two authorities. The agreement covers laboratory data sharing, coordination of inspections and joint health surveillance actions along the shared border, with a focus on products and medicines.

What does the new memorandum establish?

The memorandum sets technical and regulatory cooperation mechanisms between Brazil and Paraguay to share information on irregular products, laboratory analysis results and control actions. It also provides for support in coordination with other agencies, including at subnational levels, to strengthen health oversight at the border.

According to the text cited by Folha de S.Paulo, joint inspection actions must be communicated and agreed on in advance by Anvisa and Dinavisa. The document also includes the exchange of information on standards and policies, laboratory testing, premarket evaluation, registration, inspection and post-market monitoring.

Which products does it cover?

The memorandum covers pharmaceutical ingredients, medicines and biological products, medical devices, cosmetics, food and tobacco products. According to Folha de S.Paulo, this expands control obligations for Paraguayan regulated entities operating in those categories.

The text also provides for the exchange of data on good manufacturing practices, clinical trials, health alerts, seizures and investigations into the supply chain. In practice, the agreement creates a formal channel to share technical and regulatory information on products with health risks or irregular circulation.

What is the background to the agreement?

The new memorandum replaces a previous one signed in March 2024 and will remain in force for five years, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Brazilian media coverage said the cooperation aims to combat illegal health products and medicines through data sharing, inspections and joint actions in border areas.

G1 linked the signing to the rise in smuggled weight-loss injection pens coming from Paraguay. In that context, the cooperation is intended to reinforce border inspections to prevent and combat smuggling, counterfeiting and the irregular circulation of those products.

Pressure on that control effort also appears in figures reported by the Brazilian press: between January and June 2026, Brazil recorded a record 76,112 illegal weight-loss pens and ampoules seized at the border with Paraguay, with an estimated value of about R$ 19.53 million, according to MeioNews. Latam ReguNews, meanwhile, framed the understanding within a broader Mercosur health regulatory harmonization agenda.