Contributions from the Critical Success Factors model to analysis of the management of Product Development Partnerships in a government laboratory

Abstract

Product Development Partnerships (PDP) are one of the measures used by the Brazilian government to incentivize innovation policy, to expand the population's access to strategic medicines, and to reduce the country's technological dependence by strengthening the national pharmaceutical manufacturing base. The study aimed to identify the Critical Success Factors (FCS in Portuguese) for the implementation of these partnerships, using as the reference one of the largest Brazilian government pharmaceutical laboratories. FCS are seen as key areas in which the results must be satisfactory in order to ensure successful performance in the organization or project. The methodological strategies included literature review, analysis of internal documents, and semi-structured interviews with key actors. We analyzed the partnerships approved for this public laboratory from 2009 to May 2018. The study enabled a critical view of the phases in a PDP and identification of specific critical factors for this type of project. The findings reveal persistent organizational challenges for increasing the executability of partnerships, which can serve as a reference for other government laboratories that have PDP agreements under way or that intend to submit proposals for them.