Industrial policy and pharmaceutical trade networks: cases in Brazil, Ireland and India from 1995 to 2015

Abstract The level of industrial development of a nation can be inferred by the technological and productive domain of the country and its local productive structure. These elements are also important to determine the competitiveness of nations and their participation in international trade. The article empirically assesses how the development of the pharmaceutical industry is associated with changes in the patterns of specialization in the global medicines trade network to investigate the co-evolution of such dimensions in view of the industrial policy framework of three different countries: Ireland, India, and Brazil. The main results, obtained via the Network Analysis method, show that India and Ireland, unlike Brazil, have adopted more consistent and long-term policies, essential for the success of a sector development strategy, measured by their roles in the world trade network of medicines. Furthermore, the results make it clear that trade opening is not a sufficient condition for a country to reach higher levels of competitiveness.