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.

本文呈现了近期巴西制药产业研究的成果，该研究隶属于多中心项目「健康经济-产业复合体、创新与资本主义动态：巴西构建全民健康体系的结构性挑战」。本次研究针对巴西制药产业演进的四大维度展开分析：国家产业政策、内资企业金融与股权结构变迁、生产趋势以及贸易收支表现。分析基于Luiz Filgueiras与Reinaldo Gonçalves提出的理论框架，该框架聚焦1990年代以来巴西经济推行的「自由主义边缘型模式」。研究收集并分析了2009-2020年药品产品开发伙伴关系（Product Development Partnerships, PDP）的相关数据，数据来源为巴西地理与统计研究所（Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE）1996-2018年的年度工业调查（Annual Industrial Survey, PIA），同时纳入了1996-2019年该行业贸易收支演进的相关数据。研究结果显示，该国针对该产业的政策议程推动了仿制药与非处方药的生产增长，并通过PDP启动了若干生物制药与合成药物生产相关的技术转移项目。尽管产业取得上述演进，巴西仍高度依赖化学制药原料与成品药进口，这使得巴西在全球供应链中处于技术与经济弱势地位，同时该行业的贸易逆差也在持续扩大。