A industria farmaceutica brasileira : um processo de co-evolução de instituições, organizações industriais, ciencia e tecnologia / The brazilian pharmaceutical industry : a co-evolution process between science, technology, institutuions and industrial organizations

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

This dissertation deals with a path-dependence analysis of the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry to show how the local firms are incorporating innovative activities, having elements of both Evolutionary and Institutional Economics as the theoretical background. By means of interviews with industry s players, the gathering of secondary source s information, and a panel of experts its three main objectives are presented and discussed as follow. Chapter 1 develops the evolution of the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry from its formation, in the late nineteenth century, to actual days. Evidences are analyzed in order to comprehend why the scientific and technological activities - characteristics of the sector at a global level - were eliminated from the routine of local industry. Some important institutional changes occurred in the 1990s - in particular the Law of Intellectual Property and the Law on Medicines Generic - and have directed the major companies of national capital in conducing research, development and innovation activities. Chapter 2 takes this in consideration by reporting the innovative efforts of the industry that has been observed in the recent period. It is argued throughout this study that this change of attitude occurred because the combination of those two laws that has resulted in opportunistic and rent-seeking strategies by major companies of national capital. Nonetheless, observed bottlenecks and disconnections are also highlighted, limiting the opportunity to affirm that there is an actual system of pharmaceutical innovation in Brazil. The third objective is depicted in Chapter 3. In here it is emphasized the importance of path-dependence in the positioning of the new business environment that has emerged recently. Links between experience, training techniques and technology strategy of firms are highlighted. A three companies case study shows that the definition and implementation of a technology strategy tend to have elements of organizational inertia because they are impregnated by patterns of behavior inherited from the past. Finally, research findings conclude that both critics and defenders of the patent exception for pharmaceutical sector were incorrect in their predictions. Furthermore, it draw attention to the importance of companies to get rid of the ties that have linked them to the previous competitive environment (especially the shortterm focus and unwillingness to invest in activities of greater risk) and to articulate the economic and industrial policies, as well as science, technology and health ones in order to create a favorable environment for the set up of a genuine system of innovation. The mistakes of those who believed in the patent exception as a vector of learning and development of the pharmaceutical industry may be being repeated today by the belief that only public money is necessary for companies to seriously invest in research and technology-based innovation

ASSUNTO(S)

industrial organization (economic theory) technology industria farmaceutica - brasil pharmaceutical industry organização industrial (teoria economica) tecnologia - desenvolvimento economico

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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