Parasites, bugs and banks: problems and constraints of designing policies and technologies that transform R&D into healthcare solutions: the case of Chagas disease in Argentina (2007–2017)

Abstract

This paper analyses how recent STI policies in Argentina addressed the problem of transforming biomedical knowledge into solutions to priority healthcare problems and inequalities. It examines the Sectoral Technology Innovation Fund for Health and a specific project call aimed at congenital Chagas disease diagnosis. Conceived to foster systemic innovation dynamics, ‘Sectoral Funds’ were praised as a representative instrument within a regional policy trend of associative promotion of R&D. Through a ‘backwards mapping’ strategy, the paper departs from policy results (three diagnostic kits), to reconstruct the decision-making process of the instrument. This work explores the difficulties of building the social utility of R&D capacities in health towards effective solutions to local sanitary problems. It shows the persistence of the linear innovation model on R&D and policy practices–even within systemic discourses–the design of solutions as fixes isolated from wider healthcare policies, and the constraints of international funding for policy decision-making.