Brazil's biotech firms: From imitators to innovators in health-related products

The Brazilian health biotechnology sector has made considerable progress in recent years towards becoming truly innovative.  This sector comprised of private enterprises as well as government-controlled institutes, is involved in the development and/or provision of health products for human consumption.  To address the sizeable demand for health products for Brazil’s 190 million people, many of whom live in poverty, the country has taken several concrete steps, legislative and otherwise, to build upon its innovative capacity in health.  In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on the role of the private sector as an agent to complement public-sector efforts in accelerating health product innovation and provision. This paper reports that the country’s relatively limited but active entrepreneurial talent in the life sciences arena have made noteworthy contributions in this regard, and are actively building on their capacity to innovate.  Nevertheless, despite considerable progress, obstacles continue to weaken the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial sector and discourage investment in health biotechnology innovation.

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