The views expressed in these comments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent th... more The views expressed in these comments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WIPO.
This chapter explores the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and developmen... more This chapter explores the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and development. I argue that any answer to the question of whether the strengthening of these rights stimulates economic development is primarily political. I do so firstly by exploring the political and contested nature of IPRs and secondly the manner in which development and IPRs have been contested historically, especially since the emergence of the ‘developing’ world as a category and, more recently, with the rise of the knowledge economy.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Due to their very different pasts and presents, the concluding chapter does not provide a compara... more Due to their very different pasts and presents, the concluding chapter does not provide a comparative analysis of India’s and Brazil’s attempts towards becoming competitive knowledge economies. Instead, this chapter discusses some of the main challenges these countries face in the task ahead, as well as problematising the manner in which this task was adopted and has been carried out so far.
Constituting one of the core technologies of the knowledge economy, the development of biotechnol... more Constituting one of the core technologies of the knowledge economy, the development of biotechnology in the US reveals many of its dynamics: the intensification of the subsumption of labour and nature in order to generate value, the use of IP to protect the capability of certain actors to appropriate such value, and the way in which high expectations about its imagined potential to resolve a wide array of problems legitimised measures that helped secure the basis on which this sector could consolidate and expand in practice. This chapter focuses on the pioneering institutional changes undertaken in the US to establish the basis on which its commercial biotech sector would be built, paying particular attention to the manner in which finance came to colonise this new technological frontier. Under heightened competitive pressures, other developed countries and catch-up contenders, including Brazil and India, would attempt the transformation of their own institutional arrangements so as to capture part of the economic value created by the opening of this new technological frontier.
Drawing from various approaches, this chapter has the dual purpose of offering a conceptual frame... more Drawing from various approaches, this chapter has the dual purpose of offering a conceptual framework in which to embed the subsequent analysis and that of locating the emergence of the knowledge economy as an imaginary that came to be embraced by the Indian and the Brazilian state from the late 1980s onwards. The chapter is primarily concerned with explaining the international context in which India and Brazil found themselves in the 1980s, paying particular attention to the changes brought about by the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism in advanced economies, the rise of the competition state orientation, the debt crisis and the rise of the knowledge economy as one of the dominant ways of conceptualising the economy and its future direction. The chapter concludes by explaining why and how intellectual property titles have become central to the way in which the knowledge economy functions today.
Brazil’s embrace of the ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ project is located in the t... more Brazil’s embrace of the ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ project is located in the tumultuous period that followed the debt crisis and the fall of the military regime in the mid-1980s. As Brazil’s economic performance improved during the first decade of the new century, the vision of Brazil as the most advanced technological and environmental power of the new century came to orient state activities more purposefully, including those related to reforming the domestic IP system. As in India, these efforts were met with strong resistance by civil society groups and conflicts over IP in the pharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology sector are still ongoing. The second part of the chapter analyses some key conflicts and turning points, once again focusing on the role of the state and some of their most visible consequences until now.
... The politics of intellectual property rights and access to medicines. Muzaka, Valbona (2011) ... more ... The politics of intellectual property rights and access to medicines. Muzaka, Valbona (2011) The politics of intellectual property rights and access to medicines, Basingstoke, UK, Palgrave MacMillan, 181pp. (Submitted). ... More information and software credits.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
In a book published recently, AIDS Sutra: untold stories from India, 16 of India’s most influenti... more In a book published recently, AIDS Sutra: untold stories from India, 16 of India’s most influential writers try to cut through the stigma that surrounds acquired immune difficiency syndrome (AIDS) and document the human story behind the epidemic that currently affects around 3 million people in India. Their aim is both noble and timely: if AIDS continues to be stigmatised as it seems to have been until now, the likelihood of the epidemic reaching proportions surpassing those experienced by some African countries is apparently quite high. Stigma is obviously not the only factor preventing AIDS victims in India and across the world from improving their lot. Lack of information, lack of suitable healthcare facilities, poverty and lack of access to appropriate and affordable medicines are also important factors. Some of these and other factors are regularly mentioned in various AIDS studies, each arranging and ordering the elements that constitute the complexity of the endemic in an order that highlights certain elements at the expense of others. When the finger has been pointed at the high price of patented antiretroviral drugs, proprietary pharmaceutical companies (PPCs) have responded quickly with reports and studies that downplay the importance of their patents to patients’ access to (affordable) medicines, blaming poverty and limited healthcare spending by governments instead as the main barrier to access. The issue of pharmaceutical patents and access to medicines was highly politicised during the late 1990s and early 2000s and it denotes a recent display of the longstanding political agency of PPCs at the national and international level. At the very least, the notion of a (political) actor implies some sort of unity of purpose and one key set of issues around which otherwise competing pharmaceutical companies have joined forces has been that of securing favourable industry regulation, whether at the national or international level, in conjunction New Political Economy, Vol. 14, No. 2, June 2009
The views expressed in these comments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent th... more The views expressed in these comments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WIPO.
This chapter explores the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and developmen... more This chapter explores the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and development. I argue that any answer to the question of whether the strengthening of these rights stimulates economic development is primarily political. I do so firstly by exploring the political and contested nature of IPRs and secondly the manner in which development and IPRs have been contested historically, especially since the emergence of the ‘developing’ world as a category and, more recently, with the rise of the knowledge economy.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Due to their very different pasts and presents, the concluding chapter does not provide a compara... more Due to their very different pasts and presents, the concluding chapter does not provide a comparative analysis of India’s and Brazil’s attempts towards becoming competitive knowledge economies. Instead, this chapter discusses some of the main challenges these countries face in the task ahead, as well as problematising the manner in which this task was adopted and has been carried out so far.
Constituting one of the core technologies of the knowledge economy, the development of biotechnol... more Constituting one of the core technologies of the knowledge economy, the development of biotechnology in the US reveals many of its dynamics: the intensification of the subsumption of labour and nature in order to generate value, the use of IP to protect the capability of certain actors to appropriate such value, and the way in which high expectations about its imagined potential to resolve a wide array of problems legitimised measures that helped secure the basis on which this sector could consolidate and expand in practice. This chapter focuses on the pioneering institutional changes undertaken in the US to establish the basis on which its commercial biotech sector would be built, paying particular attention to the manner in which finance came to colonise this new technological frontier. Under heightened competitive pressures, other developed countries and catch-up contenders, including Brazil and India, would attempt the transformation of their own institutional arrangements so as to capture part of the economic value created by the opening of this new technological frontier.
Drawing from various approaches, this chapter has the dual purpose of offering a conceptual frame... more Drawing from various approaches, this chapter has the dual purpose of offering a conceptual framework in which to embed the subsequent analysis and that of locating the emergence of the knowledge economy as an imaginary that came to be embraced by the Indian and the Brazilian state from the late 1980s onwards. The chapter is primarily concerned with explaining the international context in which India and Brazil found themselves in the 1980s, paying particular attention to the changes brought about by the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism in advanced economies, the rise of the competition state orientation, the debt crisis and the rise of the knowledge economy as one of the dominant ways of conceptualising the economy and its future direction. The chapter concludes by explaining why and how intellectual property titles have become central to the way in which the knowledge economy functions today.
Brazil’s embrace of the ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ project is located in the t... more Brazil’s embrace of the ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ project is located in the tumultuous period that followed the debt crisis and the fall of the military regime in the mid-1980s. As Brazil’s economic performance improved during the first decade of the new century, the vision of Brazil as the most advanced technological and environmental power of the new century came to orient state activities more purposefully, including those related to reforming the domestic IP system. As in India, these efforts were met with strong resistance by civil society groups and conflicts over IP in the pharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology sector are still ongoing. The second part of the chapter analyses some key conflicts and turning points, once again focusing on the role of the state and some of their most visible consequences until now.
... The politics of intellectual property rights and access to medicines. Muzaka, Valbona (2011) ... more ... The politics of intellectual property rights and access to medicines. Muzaka, Valbona (2011) The politics of intellectual property rights and access to medicines, Basingstoke, UK, Palgrave MacMillan, 181pp. (Submitted). ... More information and software credits.
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
In a book published recently, AIDS Sutra: untold stories from India, 16 of India’s most influenti... more In a book published recently, AIDS Sutra: untold stories from India, 16 of India’s most influential writers try to cut through the stigma that surrounds acquired immune difficiency syndrome (AIDS) and document the human story behind the epidemic that currently affects around 3 million people in India. Their aim is both noble and timely: if AIDS continues to be stigmatised as it seems to have been until now, the likelihood of the epidemic reaching proportions surpassing those experienced by some African countries is apparently quite high. Stigma is obviously not the only factor preventing AIDS victims in India and across the world from improving their lot. Lack of information, lack of suitable healthcare facilities, poverty and lack of access to appropriate and affordable medicines are also important factors. Some of these and other factors are regularly mentioned in various AIDS studies, each arranging and ordering the elements that constitute the complexity of the endemic in an order that highlights certain elements at the expense of others. When the finger has been pointed at the high price of patented antiretroviral drugs, proprietary pharmaceutical companies (PPCs) have responded quickly with reports and studies that downplay the importance of their patents to patients’ access to (affordable) medicines, blaming poverty and limited healthcare spending by governments instead as the main barrier to access. The issue of pharmaceutical patents and access to medicines was highly politicised during the late 1990s and early 2000s and it denotes a recent display of the longstanding political agency of PPCs at the national and international level. At the very least, the notion of a (political) actor implies some sort of unity of purpose and one key set of issues around which otherwise competing pharmaceutical companies have joined forces has been that of securing favourable industry regulation, whether at the national or international level, in conjunction New Political Economy, Vol. 14, No. 2, June 2009
Chapter 1 – Introduction
The introduction places the intention of India and Brazil of becoming ‘... more Chapter 1 – Introduction
The introduction places the intention of India and Brazil of becoming ‘knowledge powers’ in the context of broader changes occurring in the global political economy since the 1970s and, more specifically, in the shift of sources of wealth creation towards the manipulation of knowledge and information and towards rents accrued from titles which include intellectual property titles such as patents. It argues that a focus on how the state in both is dealing with intellectual property is crucial to understanding the manner in which these countries envision their becoming the knowledge powers of the 21st century.
Intellectual Property, knowledge powers, India, Brazil
Chapter 2 – Catching up in the new knowledge economy
Drawing from various approaches, this chapter has the dual purpose of offering a conceptual framework in which to embed the subsequent analysis and that of locating the emergence of the knowledge economy as an imaginary that came to be embraced by the Indian and the Brazilian state from the late 1980s onwards. The chapter is primarily concerned with explaining the international context in which India and Brazil found themselves in the 1980s, paying particular attention to the changes brought about by the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism in advanced economies, the rise of the competition state orientation, the debt crisis and the rise of the knowledge economy as one of the dominant way of conceptualising the economy and its future direction. The chapter concludes with explain why and how intellectual property titles have become central to the way in which the knowledge economy functions today.
Post-Fordism, competition state orientation, the knowledge economy, knowledge as commodity
Chapter 3 – Financialisation and the Emergence of Biotechnology
Constituting one of the core technologies of the knowledge economy, the development of biotechnology in the US reveals many of its dynamics: the intensification of the subsumption of labour and nature in order to generate value, the use of IP to protect the capability of certain actors to appropriate such value, and the way in which high expectations about its imagined potential to resolve a wide array of problems legitimised measures that helped secure the basis on which this sector could consolidate and expand in practice. This chapter focuses on the pioneering institutional changes undertaken in the US to establish the basis on which its commercial biotech sector would be built, paying particular attention to the manner in which finance came to colonise this new technological frontier. Under heightened competitive pressures, other developed countries and catch-up contenders, including Brazil and India, would attempt the transformation of their own institutional arrangements so as to capture part of the economic value created by the opening of this new technological frontier.
Biotechnology, financialisation, technological rents, NASDAQ, ‘life-patenting’, commercialisation of scientific research
Chapter 4 – Intellectual Property for Pharmaceuticals and Plant Genetic Resources in Historical Perspective
As this chapter shows, intellectual property protection for pharmaceuticals and plant genetic resources developed separately and only came together with the entry into force of the WTO TRIPS agreement in 1995. Likewise, disagreements between developed and developing states regarding the international patent system and the flow of genetic resources had also followed somewhat separate trajectories until TRIPS entered the scene, following the entry into force a year earlier of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). This chapter follows these trajectories, paying particular attention to the substantive issues and the role played by India and Brazil.
Seed wars, new economic order movement, plant breeders rights, TRIPS, CBD
Chapter 5 – Intellectual Property for Pharmaceuticals and Agro-biotech in India
This chapter starts with the shift in India’s economic direction during the late 1980s and early 1990s towards a more open economy. A central element of this new orientation was the apparent necessity of India becoming capable of successfully competing in world markets, not least through building on the industrial, scientific and technological base built up since independence. The state moved to reform the intellectual property system to fit this new orientation and, importantly, that of making India amongst the top knowledge economies by 2020. The second part of the chapter analyses the social conflicts that have accompanied changes to the IP system related to pharmaceuticals and plant biotechnology, focusing in particular on the role of the state in them and some of their most visible consequences so far.
Chapter 6 – Intellectual Property for Pharmaceuticals and Agro-biotech in Brazil
Brazil’s embrace of the ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ project is located in the tumultuous period that followed the debt crisis and the fall of the military regime in the mid-1980s. As Brazil’s economic performance improved during the first decade of the new century, the vision of Brazil as the most advanced technological and environmental power of the new century came to orient more purposefully state activities, including those related to reforming the domestic IP system. As in India, these efforts were met with strong resistance by civil society groups and conflicts over IP in the pharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology sector are still ongoing. The second part of the chapter analyses some key conflicts and turning points, once again, focusing on the role of the state in them and some of their most visible consequences until now.
Chapter 7 – Looking ahead: the emerging ‘knowledge powers’?
Due to their very different pasts and presents, the concluding chapter does not provide a comparative analysis of India’s and Brazil’s attempts towards becoming competitive knowledge economies. Instead, this chapter discusses some of the main challenges these countries face in the task ahead, as well as problematises the manner in which this task was adopted and has been carried out so far.
Inequality, financialisation, premature deindustrialisation, technological capabilities, alternatives, social needs
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Papers by Valbona Muzaka
The introduction places the intention of India and Brazil of becoming ‘knowledge powers’ in the context of broader changes occurring in the global political economy since the 1970s and, more specifically, in the shift of sources of wealth creation towards the manipulation of knowledge and information and towards rents accrued from titles which include intellectual property titles such as patents. It argues that a focus on how the state in both is dealing with intellectual property is crucial to understanding the manner in which these countries envision their becoming the knowledge powers of the 21st century.
Intellectual Property, knowledge powers, India, Brazil
Chapter 2 – Catching up in the new knowledge economy
Drawing from various approaches, this chapter has the dual purpose of offering a conceptual framework in which to embed the subsequent analysis and that of locating the emergence of the knowledge economy as an imaginary that came to be embraced by the Indian and the Brazilian state from the late 1980s onwards. The chapter is primarily concerned with explaining the international context in which India and Brazil found themselves in the 1980s, paying particular attention to the changes brought about by the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism in advanced economies, the rise of the competition state orientation, the debt crisis and the rise of the knowledge economy as one of the dominant way of conceptualising the economy and its future direction. The chapter concludes with explain why and how intellectual property titles have become central to the way in which the knowledge economy functions today.
Post-Fordism, competition state orientation, the knowledge economy, knowledge as commodity
Chapter 3 – Financialisation and the Emergence of Biotechnology
Constituting one of the core technologies of the knowledge economy, the development of biotechnology in the US reveals many of its dynamics: the intensification of the subsumption of labour and nature in order to generate value, the use of IP to protect the capability of certain actors to appropriate such value, and the way in which high expectations about its imagined potential to resolve a wide array of problems legitimised measures that helped secure the basis on which this sector could consolidate and expand in practice. This chapter focuses on the pioneering institutional changes undertaken in the US to establish the basis on which its commercial biotech sector would be built, paying particular attention to the manner in which finance came to colonise this new technological frontier. Under heightened competitive pressures, other developed countries and catch-up contenders, including Brazil and India, would attempt the transformation of their own institutional arrangements so as to capture part of the economic value created by the opening of this new technological frontier.
Biotechnology, financialisation, technological rents, NASDAQ, ‘life-patenting’, commercialisation of scientific research
Chapter 4 – Intellectual Property for Pharmaceuticals and Plant Genetic Resources in Historical Perspective
As this chapter shows, intellectual property protection for pharmaceuticals and plant genetic resources developed separately and only came together with the entry into force of the WTO TRIPS agreement in 1995. Likewise, disagreements between developed and developing states regarding the international patent system and the flow of genetic resources had also followed somewhat separate trajectories until TRIPS entered the scene, following the entry into force a year earlier of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). This chapter follows these trajectories, paying particular attention to the substantive issues and the role played by India and Brazil.
Seed wars, new economic order movement, plant breeders rights, TRIPS, CBD
Chapter 5 – Intellectual Property for Pharmaceuticals and Agro-biotech in India
This chapter starts with the shift in India’s economic direction during the late 1980s and early 1990s towards a more open economy. A central element of this new orientation was the apparent necessity of India becoming capable of successfully competing in world markets, not least through building on the industrial, scientific and technological base built up since independence. The state moved to reform the intellectual property system to fit this new orientation and, importantly, that of making India amongst the top knowledge economies by 2020. The second part of the chapter analyses the social conflicts that have accompanied changes to the IP system related to pharmaceuticals and plant biotechnology, focusing in particular on the role of the state in them and some of their most visible consequences so far.
Liberalisation reforms, generic pharmaceutical sector, health NGOs, biopiracy, farmers rights, GM seeds
Chapter 6 – Intellectual Property for Pharmaceuticals and Agro-biotech in Brazil
Brazil’s embrace of the ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ project is located in the tumultuous period that followed the debt crisis and the fall of the military regime in the mid-1980s. As Brazil’s economic performance improved during the first decade of the new century, the vision of Brazil as the most advanced technological and environmental power of the new century came to orient more purposefully state activities, including those related to reforming the domestic IP system. As in India, these efforts were met with strong resistance by civil society groups and conflicts over IP in the pharmaceutical and agro-biotechnology sector are still ongoing. The second part of the chapter analyses some key conflicts and turning points, once again, focusing on the role of the state in them and some of their most visible consequences until now.
The natural knowledge economy, healthcare sector (SUS), EMBRAPA, GM seeds, agribusiness
Chapter 7 – Looking ahead: the emerging ‘knowledge powers’?
Due to their very different pasts and presents, the concluding chapter does not provide a comparative analysis of India’s and Brazil’s attempts towards becoming competitive knowledge economies. Instead, this chapter discusses some of the main challenges these countries face in the task ahead, as well as problematises the manner in which this task was adopted and has been carried out so far.
Inequality, financialisation, premature deindustrialisation, technological capabilities, alternatives, social needs
Notes
Bibliography