Public Production of Anti‐Retroviral Medicines in Brazil, 1990–2007 |
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| Authors: | Matthew Flynn |
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| Institution: | a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, is currently researching pharmaceutical policies in Brazil. His interests include globalization, the role of the state in development, and political and economic sociology. Please send all comments and queries to mbf239@mail.utexas.edu or Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station – A 1700, Austin, TX 78712, USA. |
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| Abstract: | This article examines Brazil's experience with the public production of anti‐retroviral drugs (ARVs) and highlights the important role of the state in guaranteeing access to life‐saving medicines and fulfilling human rights commitments. The key to understanding the government's successful intervention in the pharmaceutical market and provision of treatment rests on the synergistic, albeit political, relationship between reform‐minded public servants and civil society activists. This article argues that three key factors led to the government becoming a direct producer of ARVs: 1) a pre‐existing infrastructure of public laboratories that have served the public health system to a greater or lesser degree since the 1960s; 2) strong civil society pressures, including public health activists both inside and outside the government; and 3) a pharmaceutical sector characterized by high prices and controlled by transnational drug companies. |
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