The missing page: reflections on the Health Industrial and Economic Complex (CEIS) as an element for reducing technological and productive dependence

Abstract

This writing seeks to address the transdisciplinarity and the multiple facets involved in research to understand health related issues and their alternatives, based on a political economy approach. Through the proper conceptualization of the inherent themes, especially in the bibliography of classical economics, the article intends to shed light on the importance of the robustness of the industry for the reduction of technological dependence as a dynamic element of opportunities for the insertion in the global value chains. If it is true that the world is moving towards public policies based on evidence, the successful examples reveal that in the area of health, technological development is fundamental to allow Brazil to assume the reins of its own destiny. Neoliberalizing policies, adopted in recent decades, have reduced the prospect of reindustrialization. The false dichotomy between the State and the Market is at the genesis of the Brazilian technological backwardness in several segments, although it is not the exclusive cause. In times of individualism, SUS has shown its value and gained the sympathy of many refractory Brazilians, in face of the advent of Covid-19. The great innovations have emerged from the interoperability between the State and the Market. It is concluded that the positive externalities that the health sector reveals cannot be wasted. The perspective of economic development is the central element of the achievable benefits. The decision is always political, but if it is evidence-based, the economic debate needs to hear voices beyond those unique advocates of financialization.