Lessons on Emerging Markets and Global Health

Globalization, Evolution and Emergence of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: Are Emerging Markets the Next Pharmaceutical Marketing Frontier?

Pharmaceutical marketing has rapidly evolved over the past century and has now entered the digital revolution.  This is exemplified by the rise of direct-to-consumer-advertising (“DTCA”), which has traditionally been only allowed in the United States and New Zealand in developed countries, but is now expanding in reach to other jurisdictions.  Enabling the “globalization” of pharmaceutical DTCA is Internet-related technologies that are not limited to geographical borders and are highly unregulated.  This DTCA digital “spillover” into markets that prohibit it can have adverse impact on health outcomes and health-related spending.  Emerging markets may represent the next logically step for digital DTCA proliferation, given their untapped market potential and explosive growth.  Further research and global health policy reform is necessary to address this “emerging” global health issue.

Biotechnology in Brazil: An Industry Overview

Recently becoming the sixth largest economy in the world, Brazil has relied, in large part, on its comparative advantages of resource extraction and agriculture. Sustained long-term growth will require Brazil moves into higher value industries that build of off its comparative advantage. Biotechnology has surfaced as a sector of strategic importance, and government involvement in finance, education and research and development has created an industry on the cusp of global significance. By examining sources of finance, human capital accumulation, research and development, intellectual property rights and supporting institutions, we seek to provide a broad overview of Brazil’s nascent biotechnology sector. Spotlights of the agriculture, human health and reagent industries as well as an analysis of the Minas Gerais biotechnology cluster flesh out biotechnology’s place in Brazil’s economy. An antiquated intellectual property rights regime, an insufficient number of qualified researchers and dearth of venture capital firms and private sources of finance are key bottlenecks that must be addressed in order to promote industry growth and consolidation.