COVID-19 vaccine production coalitions. A Latin American perspective

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 pandemic, large pharmaceutical companies from developed countries joined the race for vaccine development, accentuating the disadvantageous position of developing countries in global vaccine production. This paper proposes to analyze the dynamics of the participation of Argentina and Brazil between 2020 and 2022 in the production of COVID-19 vaccines, through the concept of production coalitions, by examining the actors and the cognitive, material, and symbolic elements that sustain them. In the Argentine case, the context of the pandemic allowed a re-legitimization and empowerment of the national (bio)pharmaceutical private sector and the Government, with more fluid relations between the different actors of the coalition. In the case of Brazil, although the institutional imaginaries and cultures embedded in transversal policies of public vaccine production contribute to the empowerment of the public health sector concerning international (bio)pharmaceutical companies, the mass production of vaccines was prioritized, even with imported technologies. In addition, some public policy lessons for developing countries are mentioned in this paper, with the aim of achieving greater resilience in their participation in coalitions.

KEYWORDS:
COVID-19 vaccines; Production coalitions; Biopharmaceutical industry; Value networks