TY - JOUR
T1 - Business as usual?
T2 - How the pharmaceutical industry protected its long-term interests during and after eurozone bailouts (2011–2020)
AU - Pereira, Diogo Teixeira
AU - Moury, Catherine
AU - Barros, Pedro Pita
N1 - This work was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UIDB/00124/2020, UIDP/00124/2020 and Social Sciences DataLab – PINFRA/22209/2016), POR Lisboa and POR Norte (Social Sciences DataLab, PINFRA/22209/2016).
PY - 2023/3/29
Y1 - 2023/3/29
N2 - In this article, we start from the assumption that the pharmaceutical industry accumulates material, instrumental, ideational and institutional power. Considering this, we expect that it would be very difficult for governments to reduce the rents of pharmaceutical companies in the long-term, even when the former are externally constrained to reduce their spending. We test our argument by carrying out a qualitative analysis of a paradigmatic case study, the Portuguese economic adjustment programme (2011–2014). We demonstrate that the conditionality associated with the international bailout was welcomed by Portuguese reformist ministers as an opportunity to decrease public pharmaceutical spending. However, the representatives of the industry took several initiatives to make sure that the decrease of its profits would be limited in scope and time. As a result, as soon as the bailout terminated, the industry was able to regain its rents.
AB - In this article, we start from the assumption that the pharmaceutical industry accumulates material, instrumental, ideational and institutional power. Considering this, we expect that it would be very difficult for governments to reduce the rents of pharmaceutical companies in the long-term, even when the former are externally constrained to reduce their spending. We test our argument by carrying out a qualitative analysis of a paradigmatic case study, the Portuguese economic adjustment programme (2011–2014). We demonstrate that the conditionality associated with the international bailout was welcomed by Portuguese reformist ministers as an opportunity to decrease public pharmaceutical spending. However, the representatives of the industry took several initiatives to make sure that the decrease of its profits would be limited in scope and time. As a result, as soon as the bailout terminated, the industry was able to regain its rents.
KW - Eurozone crisis
KW - Pharmaceutical industry
KW - Lobby
KW - Rents
KW - State-industry agreements
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2023.2193622
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2023.2193622
M3 - Article
SN - 2474-736X
VL - 5
JO - Political Research Exchange
JF - Political Research Exchange
IS - 1
M1 - 2193622
ER -