O backlogde patentes no Brasil e o caso das doenças negligenciadas

Abstract

This research aims to elaborate an empirical-qualitative diagnosis on the relationship between the patent backlog in Brazil and the case of neglected diseases, in order to verify whether, in addition to its insufficiency to encourage pharmaceutical innovation for this group of diseases, the existing intellectual property system could be an obstacle to the few processes of ongoing innovation and access by the most impoverished population to existing pharmaceutical innovations in this area. The theoretical framework is based on a morphogenetic approach of the current intellectual property system, adopted by Susan Sell, according to which institutions are central and dynamic elements in the mutual process of constitution existing between the agents and the structures in which they are inserted. In addition, the proposed diagnosis, guided by the rules of inference elaborated by Lee Epstein and Gary King, results in descriptive inferences based on the collection and the predominantly qualitative interpretation of empirical data extracted directly from the INPI official database. Consequently, the initial hypothesis was corroborated, as it was possible to infer that the patent backlog in the INPI not only is a domestic institutional problem, but also should be considered as a structural condition of the current intellectual property system itself, a serious obstacle to the process of pharmaceutical innovation, as well as access by the most impoverished population to existing pharmaceutical innovations, especially in the case of neglected diseases.