Parcerias para o Desenvolvimento Produtivo de medicamentos no Brasil sob a ótica das compras públicas para inovação: 2009-2017

Abstract

The work focuses on the Productive Development Partnerships (PDP), a public policy instrument that puts together drugs procurement by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and technology transfer processes between private and State Owned pharmaceutical companies. We conduct a policy design and implementation assessment using data triangulation of many primary sources, such as official records and seven interviews with former Ministry of Health policy makers. We looked at this policy thought the theoretical background of public procurement for innovation, and as a sectoral policy within the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry. For the policy assessment, four steps were undertaken. First, we analysed the institutional framework history and evolution, focusing on its final version of 2014. This was followed by an analysis of the explicit and implicit policy objectives, that were put together using the Logic Model. Third, we mapped the other relevant related public policies, identifying aspects where there would be mutual reinforcement and points where there would be collisions and inconsistencies. Finally, its implementation process was analyzed, identifying that the policy captured a very specific set of medicines, of high purchase value by the Ministry of Health and high concentration of market. The research has two main results. First, that PDP adheres to the theoretical framework of public procurement for innovation. It bridges drug purchases by the Ministry of Health to technology diffusion and local production. Its execution pitfalls relate mostly to previous technological capabilities of the Brazilian innovation system and to political uncertainty. It was also verified that the process of implementation of the PDPs was gradual and slow, with norms stating its objectives explicitly and greater governance and controls, parallel to partial reduction of the of the Ministry of Health’s discretion on its conduction.