TRIPLE HELIX noms.pmd

W-05Is industry-university interaction real and viable in the Brazilianpharmaceutical system of innovation?Julia Paranhos, Lia Hasenclever, Federal University Of Rio De Janeiro, BrazilIntroductionIndustrial policy in Brazil has had different waves during the last 20 years. As in many developing countries, during the 1990’sthe Brazilian government followed the Washington Consensus recommendations of capital and trade liberalisation and decreasedthe importance of the State in the economy, specially the actions related to the industrial sectors. Only in 2003, the newgovernment established a new industrial policy, which became important again. The Industrial, Technological & Foreign TradePolicy (PITCE, in Portuguese) had the objective to induce new competitive level in industry through innovation generation. Itimplemented a systematic view of the innovation process and established the industry-university interaction as the mostimportant way to stimulate innovation in the industrial sector. Some laws and government programmes were created to facilitatethis interaction and the generation of innovation. In 2008, another new industrial policy was signed, the Productive DevelopmentPolicy (PDP), aiming at creating sustainability for economic growth. Innovation and industry-university relationship were maintainedas important goals.The aim of this paper is to show that although some government instruments have been developed to enhance innovation inBrazil mainly through the improvement of the industry-university interaction, they are not enough to make it happen. We believethat many other factors influence the development of companies and their capacity and will to innovate. While companies’investments in research and development (R&D) are very rare and government instruments to stimulate these investments areinsufficient, it will be very difficult to increase innovative activities in the industrial sector, specifically the pharmaceutical sector.MethodologyThe study was preceded by a literature review and secondary data analysis that aimed to contextualise it, showing the industryuniversityinteraction numbers and characteristics in the pharmaceutical sector in Brazil. The field work consisted of 50 interviewswith important actors from the Brazilian pharmaceutical system of innovation, e.g. companies, universities, government institutionsand actors related to the sector. The interviews were based on open questionnaires; all of them were conducted in person andrecorded. The interviewees are representatives from different and important actors of the system, so it would be possible tocreate a diverse and large sample of information about the importance of cooperation to innovate. The main topics discussed inthe interviews were the motivations and strategies to interact, government role, activities done in collaboration, intellectualproperty rights, role of liaison agencies and main obstacles to the interaction.Resultsi) Industry-university linkages in the Brazilian pharmaceutical system of innovationGovernment stimuli and programmes to enhance innovation and the interaction between universities and pharmaceutical companieshave represented a significant increase in the amount of investments, collaborative activities and the importance of the searchfor innovation. The Brazilian Innovation Survey show an increase of 77.4% from 2003 to 2005 in the amount spent on internalR&D and 56% in the acquisition of external R&D and external knowledge. During the same period there were 65% moreinteractions between pharmaceutical companies and science and technology institutions (IBGE, 2007). Moreover, the ResearchGroups Directory of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, 2004) shows that interactionsoccur for short term scientific research; technology transfer developed by the research group to the partner and technicalconsultancy activities.Despite the rise in the numbers, it has to be considered that any growth in a small number will seem to be very significant.Therefore, if you deeply analyse the sector, things are not going as well as the numbers of innovative activities show in Brazil.ii) What did the interviewees say? Motivations, obstacles and strategies to interactionMost of the activities done in collaboration are tests that count on university equipments and previous technical knowledge,which means that very little knowledge is being created in these activities. Nevertheless, few companies are now leaning towardsystematic innovative activities, developing R&D internal departments and starting to collaborate with universities for long termresearch that can lead to a more innovative product.However, bureaucracy, the most common obstacle mentioned by interviewees when commenting on difficulties to interact,drugs registration, imports, exports and the approve of clinical trials protocols still represent very important barriers to thedevelopment of the sector and the industry-university interaction specifically. Regulatory aspects and intellectual property rightsissues were also constantly identified as factors of uncertainty that block higher investments from industry.Madrid, October 20, 21 & 22 - 2010251