Technology and Industrial Policies in Semi-peripheral environments: Public Production of Medicins in Argentina (2007-2015)
Abstract
We focus on the decision-making processes oriented to the promotion of public production of drugs (PPD) policies in Argentina, during 2002-2015, as a paradigmatic case of a semi-peripheral country that aims to build public capacities in a strategic sector of the economy and social development. With this goal we analyze: (i) public initiatives to define aims and build capacities for coordination and organization of the sector; (ii) the political and economic pressures from private sector and their consequences; and (iii) the juxtaposition of different socioeconomic meanings assigned to PPD policies. We conclude that the PPD, as an emerging sector, reached the dimension of a public policy and that it achieved, despite obstacles and contradictions, an unprecedented level of organization at the end of the analyzed period. We also infer that the trajectory of the PPD sector exemplifies a defining feature of semi-peripheral countries such as those that intend to alter the roles assigned by the international division of labor by pressing on the “contact zone” of some sectors coveted by big firms.
