Productive Development Partnerships in Brazil: empirical evidence on productive capacity (2011-2024)

Abstract

The Productive Development Partnerships (PDPs) are one of the main instruments of industrial health policy in Brazil, by articulating the purchasing power of the State with the transfer of technology to official pharmaceutical laboratories (LFOs). This article evaluated the extent to which PDPs contributed to strengthening the national production capacity of strategic medicines in the period from 2011 to 2024. A formative evaluation of public policy was carried out, based on documentary analysis, data from government acquisitions and the construction of indicators of productive and technological sustainability. The results show relevant, but uneven, advances between technological platforms, public institutions and therapeutic classes. PDPs associated with synthetic drugs showed greater production stability, while partnerships in biotechnology platforms faced greater challenges of technological internalization. High institutional heterogeneity and concentration of capacities were observed in a few public laboratories. It is concluded that the PDPs represent a strategic instrument for strengthening the Economic-Industrial Health Complex, although their effectiveness remains conditioned to the overcoming of structural weaknesses and the consolidation of long-term productive and technological capacities.

Keywords:
Public-Private Sector Partnerships; Organizational Capacity; Importation of Products; Health Economic-Industrial Complex