The Science, Technology and Innovation Policy for health in Brazil: the role of institutional and political framework in the development of research on Monoclonal Antibodies

Abstract

Over the course of the last decades, Brazil has experienced a significant increase in the occurrence of chronic diseases related to the aging of the population, such as cardiac pathologies, cancers and other neurodegenerative syndromes (Wang et. al., 2014). All of these pathologies have lost their link to specific social niches, occurring in populations of low and average income, mainly in large urban areas. This has created a great challenge to health planning, since such pathologies require drugs of high cost. Between those drugs, there are "Biological Drugs", which react with greater efficacy to the treatment of those diseases. However, these products amount to around 5% of the ones acquired by the "Sistema Único de Saúde" - SUS (Brazilian Public Health System) but represent 49% of the expenditure dedicated to the treatments. Recently, the federal government has stimulated the production of such medicines in Brazil - which requires a robust industrial park based on scientific and technological knowledge. This research aims at investigating the characteristics of the institutional outline being implemented in the country in order to develop the research, development and industrial production of Monoclonal Antibodies. It proposes to analyze how the selected public and private entities (researchers, research institutions, biotech companies and hospitals) and the Public Policy (Science, Technology & Innovation Policy; National Health Policy and Industrial Policy] interfere in the advance of Biological Drugs. The data have been made available by Ministry of S&T (via CNPq), by Ministry of Health (via Science, Technology and Strategic Inputs Secretariat), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, FIOCRUZ and with São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP. The idea is to discuss the potential of public policy in mobilizing different interests and engendering an institutional environment that can be favorable to the progress of biopharmaceutical industry and health research in development countries.