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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies
The Politics Of Patents And Drugs In Brazil And Mexico: The Industrial Bases Of Health Policies, Kenneth C. Shadlen
The Politics Of Patents And Drugs In Brazil And Mexico: The Industrial Bases Of Health Policies, Kenneth C. Shadlen
Ken Shadlen
After introducing pharmaceutical patents in the 1990s, Brazil subsequently adjusted the patent system to ameliorate its effects on drug prices while Mexico introduced measures that reinforce and intensify these effects. The different trajectories are due to the nature of the actors pushing for reform and subsequent patterns of coalitional formation and political mobilization. In Brazil, government demand for expensive, patented drugs made health-oriented patent reform a priority, and the existence of an autonomous local pharmaceutical sector allowed the Ministry of Health to build a supportive coalition. In Mexico, government demand made reforms less urgent, and transformations of the pharmaceutical sector …
The Political Economy Of Aids Treatment: Intellectual Property And The Transformation Of Generic Supply, Kenneth C. Shadlen
The Political Economy Of Aids Treatment: Intellectual Property And The Transformation Of Generic Supply, Kenneth C. Shadlen
Ken Shadlen
This article examines the relationship between intellectual property (IP) and public health, with a focus on the extension of AIDS treatment in the developing world. While most of the literature on IP and health examines the conditions affecting poor countries’ capacities to acquire essential medicines, I show the distinct – and more complicated – political economy of production and supply. IP regulations alter the structure of generic pharmaceutical sectors in the countries capable of supplying essential medicines, and changes in market structure affect actors’ economic and political interests and capacities. These new constellations of interests and capacities have profound implications …