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Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are biopharmaceuticals prescribed in oncology, rheumatology, and for other chronic and autoimmune diseases. Over the last decade, the demand for MAbs grew significantly in developing countries like Brazil, concomitant to the restructuring of the global biopharmaceutical industry, opening windows of opportunities for catching-up economies. This paper aims to analyze the capacity of a public policy, the so-called Production Development Partnership Program (PDPP), to encourage the generation of national capabilities to the local biopharmaceutical industry and technological upgrading in the biopharmaceutical sector in Brazil. It is a case study supported by qualitative data from twenty-three interviews. By focusing on technology transfer processes rather than on more complex strategies of technological learning and upgrading in domestic agents, the impact of PDPP has been marginal. We draw insights from this empirical appraisal to outline some lessons and challenges involved in the implementation of technology-upgrading policies in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present considerations about the use of music as a critical and radical pedagogy in an International Relations class in the Global South. How can music help students understand the processes of marginalization, resistance, and struggle? Can it be understood as a tool to be used in the classroom to transcend traditional and marginalizing pedagogies? The contribution of our proposal derives from the possibility of a symbiosis between the teaching of critical, decolonial, and postcolonial perspectives and the language used to communicate these concepts and ideas to a young audience with different backgrounds. In this sense, we bring perceptions of the engagement with music as a pedagogical tool in an undergraduate course entitled " Decolonizing International Relations: epistemic violence and emancipation in Global South." By playing songs, not only the learning process became deeper and more meaningful to students, but it also opened margins to a dialogical interaction. We share our experience hoping to contribute to a meaningful debate among scholars, inspiring teachers to engage with decolonial/critical pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1970s in South Asia and Latin America, there was a surge of experiences of offering small loans through innovative practices. Following these successes, the dissemination of microfinance institutions is seen all over the globe. Brazil stands out for being a pioneer in this field, having developed a microcredit program even before Grameen Bank, from Bangladesh, the main institution responsible for the spread of microfinance worldwide. This paper aims to understand the social practices, power relations and institutional infrastructure surrounding microfinance, taking the Global South as a starting point and focusing on Brazil. In so doing, it looks at the policy mobility of microfinance, shining light on how policy diffusion and transfer are entangled in the practices and processes of different institutions, actors and networks. It identifies two approaches within the formulation and practice of microfinance historically. Four illustrative cases are discussed in order to present the mobility of microfinance policies in Brazil drawing from the international scenario. The paper's point of departure for the analysis of the mobility of microfinance is that policy trajectories are fraught with ambivalence and contradiction. They are part of a complex universe permeated by hybridism over time and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1990s, Brazil became a player in the global politics of AIDS through its participation in debates on whether antiretroviral drugs were commodities or public goods. Brazilian actors not only challenged powerful pharmaceutical companies but the assumption that international health policies were solely defined in developed countries. After 1996, a coalition of Brazilian officers, health activists, people living with Aids and medical scientists advocated for universal access to generic medication (instead of costly patented drugs) and publicized its achievements at home and abroad, such as a marked decline in AIDS cases. However, during the first decade of the twenty-first century increased costs, little attention to prevention and the persistence of homophobia hindered treatment. Moreover, unilateral US programmes and conservative evangelicals glorifying sexual abstinence sabotaged anti-AIDS work. After the financial crisis of 2008, universal access to ARVs lost political momentum and sustaining treatment became difficult in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]