Law No. 14,133 (Brazil, 2021), Productive Development Partnerships in Health, and the Pursuit of Technological Development

Abstract

The reality of the public health system requires constant innovation and improvement measures, given the need to meet increasingly demanding expectations from the population (greater fulfillment of human dignity), amid the evolving perspective of fundamental rights. In this context, the study sought to analyze whether the leeway granted by Law No. 14,133 (Brazil, 2021) to allow the insertion of new technologies into the health system through direct contracting would be effective in promoting the development of this system or if it would further increase the country’s dependence on private companies, particularly those from developed countries (with resources to encourage national companies to acquire knowledge, machinery, and other inputs). Through qualitative research strategies—including the analysis of documents (normative acts and decisions of external control bodies), as well as a critical-reflective analysis of the state of the art—it was found that the aforementioned general law on bidding and contracts, by enabling the acquisition of technology by the public health system from private companies, especially those from developed countries, maintains Brazil’s dependency on those nations. Moreover, no relevant initiatives by the Federal Government were found to alter this scenario.