Industrial and Innovation Policies in the Mexican Biotechnology Sector

Abstract

This article analyzes the possibilities of an industrial ascent of the Mexican biopharma sector based on creative imitation. The emergence of various national endogenous technological change initiatives as creative imitation processes is associated with late industrialization and favorable or unfavorable circumstances for developing countries to achieve a dynamic insertion into the technological paradigms of emerging sectors. Given the above, the empirical goal of this study is to identify, typify, and catalogue the modes of insertion configuring technological trajectories within the pharmaceutical industry in Mexico. This study discusses the potential for knowledge-intensive production activities to modify the production structure and allow for production specialization based on increasing activities that provide higher productivity and more added value in Mexico. This entails the emergence of new areas in the sector with the role of creating new technologies and performing cross-sectional dissemination of biotech solutions in the value chain associated with human health.