Interrupted Constructions: The Brazilian Health-Industrial Complex in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Officially launched in 2007, Brazil's Health-Industrial Silva, 2004 Calls to resume interrupted constructions are not rare in Brazil, nor is it surprising that President Lula should want to make political capital of Furtado's vision for Brazil while commemorating his death. Regardless of what Lula himself made of Furtado's ideas, amidst the uneasy mix of hopes and disillusionment that accompanied his two terms in office (2003-10), a self-proclaimed Furtadian project was indeed in the making: constructing a health-industrial complex in Brazil. Seeking to co-articulate the logic of building a dynamic industrial base, and the logic of providing universal and egalitarian healthcare, the health-industrial complex proposed itself as a means of addressing social inequality, dependency on foreign technology, and weaknesses in the national innovation and productive systems simultaneously, with the ultimate purpose that of helping propel Brazil's socio-economic development forward (Gadelha et al., 2003; Gadelha, 2006). The project of building a Brazilian health-industrial complex was promptly embraced by the Lula administration.