Development, innovation and health: The theoretical and political perspective of the health economic-industrial complex

Abstract

The concept and approach of the Health Economic-Industrial Complex (HEIC) were present in the advancement of the Unified Health System (SUS) in the last decades, contributing to the incorporation of an agenda related to the national pattern of development. The paper reconstructs this approach to capture its dynamics and demarcate the vision developed in this paradigm. It reveals the thinking matrices of the field of political economy that provide the analytical substrate for its development, allowing us to confront the reductionist use of the concept. It highlights, therefore, the logical foundations that guided the public policies resulting from this approach, with emphasis on the systemic approach and the use of state purchasing power, through the Productive Development Partnerships (PDP), marking the effort to articulate the social and economic realms of development. At present, this analytical perspective is even more crucial, showing that well-being not only fits into GDP but can also be a lever for a pattern of development committed to the National Health Universal System (SUS), society and economic and technological sovereignty in health.