The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Underdevelopmen

尽管采取了旨在促进技术传播和采用新技术的宏观经济改革，但南非的技术创新仍然有限。以制药和生命科学领域的创新为例。南非被誉为非洲大陆最大的制造商，长期以来一直有在制药生产方面独立的雄心。然而，它继续向全球北方输送资金，进口70-90%的基本药物。在这个研究项目中，我将揭示为什么以及如何做到这一点，研究经济政策，如加强知识产权法，财政限制和贸易自由化是如何塑造南非制药业的发展的。该项目将采用混合方法，通过两个阶段进行。在进行一系列详细的案例研究之前，我将首先对南非后种族隔离时期的过渡进行历史研究，重点是经济改革。每个案例研究都集中在一个特定的疾病领域，将探讨第一阶段强调的经济改革如何制约开发基本药物的科学尝试;政策选择;以及当地工业的应对能力。通过这种方式，该项目将对宏观经济政策如何塑造全球南方制药业的不发达状况进行因果解释。

Despite adopting macroeconomic reforms designed toimprove the diffusion of technologies and adoption of newideas, technological innovation has remained limited inSouth Africa. Consider innovation in the pharmaceutical andlife sciences sectors. Hailed as the largest manufacturer inthe continent, South Africa has long had the ambition to beindependent in its pharmaceutical production. Yet itcontinues to channel funds towards the Global North,importing between 70-90% of essential medicines. In thisresearch project, I will look to uncover why and how this is,examining how economic policies such as strengthenedintellectual property laws, fiscal restraint, and tradeliberalisation have shaped the development of thepharmaceutical sector within South Africa.The project will adopt a mixed methods approach deliveredthrough two phases. I will first conduct a historical study ofSouth Africa's post-apartheid transition, focussing on itseconomic reforms, before conducting a set of detailed casestudies. Each focussing on a specific disease area, the casestudies will explore how the economic reforms highlightedin the first phase have conditioned scientific attempts todevelop essential medicines; policy options; and the abilityof local industry to respond. In this way, the project willdevelop a causal account of how macroeconomic policyshapes pharmaceutical underdevelopment in the GlobalSouth.