Brazil Laments Low Private Sector R&D

An influential foundation linked to Brazil's government has defended regulations which are intended to boost R&D activity in the country. However, it is clear that the measures have failed to oblige leading multinational drugmakers to create the desired partnerships with Brazilian academic institutions and commit funding to local R&D projects.

The Fiocruz foundation notes that the public sector far outpaces the private sector in R&D, and claims that this is restricting the transfer of pharmaceutical technology which the country's government is eager to encourage. The fact that fewer than 1,000 of Brazil's roughly 11,000 research staff are employed by private companies is telling, as much local R&D follows government priorities. A stated example of this trend is that, as the country has recently suffered from erratic HIV/AIDS treatments, a Rio de Janeiro university has developed a test kit for the disease which is likely to cost 30% less than imports supplied from the US.

Nevertheless, in view of the Brazilian government's recent pledges to break international patents on antiretroviral drugs, lax data protection and a recent record of interventionism in the domestic drug industry, it appears unlikely that the multinational sector will increase R&D activity in the country in the short term.