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Titre Éloge de la copie : le reverse engineering des antirétroviraux contre le VIH/sida dans les laboratoires pharmaceutiques brésiliens
Auteur Maurice Cassier, Marilena Corrêa
Mir@bel Revue Sciences Sociales et Santé
Numéro vol. 27, no 3, septembre 2009
Page 77-103
Résumé anglais Eulogy for copying : reverse engineering of anti-retrovirals for HIV/ Aids in Brazilian pharmaceutical laboratories The Brazilian programme for combating the Aids epidemic, based on universal access to treatment and on the local production of generic drugs, closely combines public health policy and pharmaceutical companies' industrial policies. Using the window opened by the non-patentable status of pharmaceutical products in that country before 1996, Brazilian pharmaceutical laboratories in both the public and private sectors reverse engineered anti-retrovirals (ARV) that were patented elsewhere but could legally be copied for the domestic market. Whereas the leading international laboratories generally consider the copying of drugs to be a “ waste of resources”, the reverse engineering of molecules as complex as ARVs has led to the creation of local knowledge by Brazilian chemists. It has also enhanced the research and development (R& D) capabilities of the pharmaceutical laboratories engaged in this economy. Based on the questions and methods of sociology of science and innovation, the article examines the production, circulation and conditions of duplication of knowledge in laboratories. It sets the work of reproducing knowledge and technology in the context of intellectual property rights on drugs.
Source : Éditeur (via Persée)
Article en ligne http://www.persee.fr/doc/sosan_0294-0337_2009_num_27_3_1929