This paper discusses the main features of health innovation systems in developed countries as a starting point for the discussion of the Brazilian case. The strategic importance of innovation in the health sector is pinpointed, highlighting the interactions between scientific research and innovation. The mutual reinforcing influence between the formation of the innovation system and the welfare institutions is an important specificity of the health sector. In the Brazilian case, the strengthening of the institutions of the health innovation system is a precondition for the overcoming of the combined backwardness in the social and in the technological dimensions.
Health innovation system; Technological progress; Interaction between science and technology
