Guzmán, Alenka --- "The Challenges of Constructing Pharmaceutical Capabilities and Promoting Access to Medicines in Mexico under TRIPS" [2011] ELECD 957; in Shadlen, C. Kenneth; Guennif, Samira; Guzmán , Alenka; Lalitha, N. (eds), "Intellectual Property, Pharmaceuticals and Public Health" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Intellectual Property, Pharmaceuticals and Public Health

Editor(s): Shadlen, C. Kenneth; Guennif, Samira; Guzmán , Alenka; Lalitha, N.

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800143

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: The Challenges of Constructing Pharmaceutical Capabilities and Promoting Access to Medicines in Mexico under TRIPS

Author(s): Guzmán, Alenka

Number of pages: 39

Extract:

5. The challenges of constructing
pharmaceutical capabilities and
promoting access to medicines in
Mexico under TRIPS
Alenka Guzmán

According to Pavitt's taxonomy (1984), the pharmaceutical sector has
been classified as an intensively scientific industry, where technology
depends basically on the basic sciences of R&D. The pharmaceutical
firms maintain their leadership by using intellectual property rights (IPR
­ patents, industrial secrets and trademarks). Patent systems in par-
ticular are of great importance to the pharmaceuticals industry, given the
permanent risk of copying through the use of low-cost processes.
In this section, we explain the analytical framework of the pharmaceutical
industry whereby the health system and the intellectual property system are
seen jointly, through both a national (Bell and Pavitt, 1993; Lundvall, 1993;
Nelson, 1993; Kim, 1997) and a sectoral innovation approach (Edquist,
1997; Breschi and Malerba, 1997; Malerba, 2002, 2004). Both the factors
of demand1 and supply2 that contribute to innovations in the pharma-
ceutical sector refer to the elements that make up the national innovation
systems and the sectoral innovation systems (NIS and SIS, respectively).3


1 The demand side includes the size and evolution of the market (Schmookler,

1966), which are influenced by economic factors and socio-economic factors and
affected by government policies, price capping, health expenditure budget and
preventive health programs (Agrawal, 2000: 24).
2 The determining factors influencing the supply are identified as the costs,

alongside the productivity of the research and development (R&D) sector linked
to the technological opportunities (Mowery and ...