Steering the wheel to deliver what? Capacities, innovation, and coalitions in the biologics sector in Latin America.

BORTZ; MARIN

Kerala

Congreso; GLOBELICS 2023; 2023

This paper aims to analyze the working and delivery capacity of Sectoral Innovation Systems (SSI) in biologics in Latin America, taking the cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. How are the different national sectoral systems in biologics shaped? What elements determine each national trajectory, where are they oriented and what does each one seek to deliver? How do STI and health policies interact with other policy subsystems?By comparing three national trajectories of sectoral systems of research, technological development, and innovation in biological products, we seek to understand innovation strategies in the health sector as a result of the tension between available capacities (scientific-technological, productive, health and regulatory), the coalitions of interests involved and positions taken on policy preferences (not necessarily related to the health sector). It shows how the functioning and delivery capacity of biological products by these systems depend on coalitions of business, social, and state actors that sustain the status quo in each country and how these coalitions condition possible future trajectories. In theoretical terms, this paper aims to incorporate a political economy perspective of Sectoral Systemsof Innovation (SSI). The cross-case comparison shows that innovation does not necessarily emerge as the primary goal of such systems in a unidirectional approach to capacity building. It shows the diversity of directionalities that these trajectories can assume, discursively oriented to build capacities to supply the health system, through a set of alternatives that are co-produced (transformed and reinforced) with political commitments, country visions, and broader policy objectives.