Advancements in disease therapeutics in Brazil, made possible by reinvesting in the nation’s scientific talent and biopharmaceutical industry, is putting the country on the scientific map. A special news focus published in the October issue of Nature Medicine highlights some of the strengths of Brazilian biomedicine and many of the
challenges that lie ahead.
Brazilian researchers are hoping that new infrastructure projects can help the country cross the so-called “valley of death” of drug development, writes Bernardo Esteves in one article. At the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, the nearly complete $84 million Center for Technological Development in Health is both an architectural
achievement and a testament to organizers’ hopes for local biotechnology industry.
This increasing investment in scientific infrastructure, not to mention Brazil’s booming economy and growing pharmaceuticals market, is also luring Brazilian-born scientists back home. But as reporter Anna Petherick points out, transitioning from training abroad to conducting science back home can be challenging. While Brazil
attempts to be more competitive at every step in the drug development process, researchers often face crippling bureaucracy and frustrating import policies for lab tools and reagents. In a separate news story, Luisa Massarani discusses some of the remedies proposed to eliminate red tape.
One such roadblock is regulations that are impeding the translation of Amazonian biodiversity into marketable drugs. Carlos Henrique Fioravanti explores how Brazil’s Provisional Measure 2186, which regulates access to the Amazon’s biological materials based on traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities, is influencing some braches of drug development. At a recent meeting in São Paulo, academics, drug company representatives and government officials met to find political ways of simplifying access to genetic resources from the rainforest. But given the political reality, some researchers and drug makers are finding clever ways to work within the system to develop medicines derived from natural products.
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