The Inverse Boomerang Pattern: the Global Kaletra Campaign and Access to Antiretroviral Drugs in Colombia and Ecuador

Abstract

This paper examines a global campaign in which transnational advocacy networks challenged the monopoly rights of Abbott Laboratories over the antiretroviral drug Kaletra. It focuses on the cases of Colombia and Ecuador and analyzes the different trajectories of the campaign in the two countries and how each trajectory contributed differently to the global outcome. In both of these cases, I show that activism operated in an Binverse boomerang^pattern, by which an international NGO reached out to local allies to expand its global coalition, prioritizing its agenda over other domestic considerations. I argue that in cases where transnational campaigns are initiated globally, there is a potential mismatch between global and domestic goals and that the campaigns' contribution to global norm-making depends on the type of relationship established between international advocates and domestic actors. Such relationships are in turn influenced by the political and economic context and the institutional arrangements of each country.