Recent changes and continuity of technological and economic dependency in the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil

This article presents the results of a study on the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil in the recent period, as part of the multicenter project Health Economic-Industrial Complex, Innovation and Capitalist Dynamics: Structural Challenges for Construction of the Universal Health System in Brazil. The four components studied in the evolution of the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry were: State industrial policies; changes in the financial and shareholding composition of companies with domestic capital; trends in production; and trade balance behavior. The analyses considered the theoretical framework proposed by Luiz Filgueiras and Reinaldo Gonçalves concerning the implementation of a “liberal and peripheral model” in the Brazilian economy since the 1990s. Data were collected and analyzed on the situation with the Product Development Partnerships (PDP) for medicines from 2009 to 2020 from the Annual Industrial Survey (PIA) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) from 1996 to 2018 and data on the evolution of the sector’s trade balance from 1996 to 2019. The results show that the State’s agenda for the sector favored the growth in production of generic drugs and over-the-counter drugs and started some technology transfer projects via PDPs for production of biological and synthetic drugs. Despite this evolution, Brazil is still dependent on the importation of chemical and pharmaceutical inputs and finished drugs. This keeps Brazil in a situation of technological and economic vulnerability in relation to global suppliers, besides a growing trade deficit in the sector.

Keywords:
Drug Industry; Public Policy; Industrial Development; Generic Drug