A reversal in the historical role of tariffs in economic growth? The cases of Brazil and Portugal

Este artigo discute o papel comparativo do protecionismo sobre o crescimento econômico brasileiro e português no período 1860-1950 no contexto das aproximações teóricas disponíveis da Economia Internacional. Embora o papel das tarifas tenha sido longamente discutido na historiografia dos dois países, este artigo fornece o primeiro exercício que usa a metodologia baseada na aproximação macroeconométrica para sucessões cronológicas de longa duração. Dada a conclusão de Clemens e Williamson de que o enquadramento mundial conta, testamos para os dois países a sua pretensão do tariff reversal paradox. As experiências brasileira e portuguesa confirmam que a proteção esteve correlacionada com o crescimento no período anterior à Primeira Guerra Mundial, e não é provável que comércio mais livre tivesse aumentado o crescimento econômico português, contrariamente à tese estabelecida. A Primeira Guerra Mundial, contudo, foi um momento decisivo para o Brasil. Ao fazer-se este estudo, usaram-se os melhores dados disponíveis, partindo-se ocasionalmente dos usados por Clemens e Williamson. As nossas conclusões prevalecem com dados alternativos.This paper discusses the comparative role of protectionism on Brazilian and Portuguese economic growth for the period 1860-1950 in the context of the available theoretical approaches from international economics. Although the role of tariffs has long been debated in the historiography of both countries, this paper provides the first exercise that uses a methodology based on a macro-econometric approach for long-run time-series. Given Clemens' and Williamson's conclusion that the world environment matters, we test their claim for two countries on the tariff reversal paradox. The Brazilian and the Portuguese experiences confirm that protection was correlated with growth in the period before World War I, and it is unlikely that freer trade would have increased Portuguese growth, contrary to the established thesis. The First World War, however, was a turning point for Brazil. In carrying out this study, we have used the best data available to us, occasionally departing from those used by Clemens and Williamson. Our conclusions hold for alternative data sets

Molecular quality engineering for low cost vaccine production

Vaccines based on recombinant proteins provide a compelling case for low cost products with broad global accessibility. Protein immunogens are typically derived directly from native sequences found in bacterial or viral pathogens, and may not be well-suited for efficient expression in recombinant hosts. Native immunogens may also suffer from numerous challenges during expression that impact their quality or efficient production, including truncation, aggregation and poor stability. These challenges can lead to inefficiencies in manufacturing of subunit protein vaccines. Typically, recombinant vaccine manufacturing processes are complex, serial batch operations requiring extensive quality testing throughout to ensure product integrity. In response to the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenge for Innovations in Vaccine Manufacturing for Global Markets, we are co-developing the ULTRA program for flexible, low cost vaccine products. This program aims to develop platform processes for production of recombinant vaccines. We believe that molecular design of the antigens provides a critical handle in improving antigen quality, manufacturability, and product stability, all of which could enable potent, low-cost vaccines. Addressing potential manufacturing challenges early on in product development should enable simple integrated processes for antigen production while minimizing costs associated with quality testing. To this end, we are demonstrating our platform approach with a recombinant trivalent subunit vaccine for rotavirus currently in clinical development. We chose to express the three VP8 subunits in Pichia pastoris to take advantage of the high titers of secreted proteins and minimal process-related contaminants typically experienced with this organism—critical features when developing simple intensified processes to meet our cost targets of $0.15/dose. Initial expression results showed the rotavirus antigens were poorly expressed and suffered from N-terminal truncation and aggregation—all of which were also observed in a previously developed E. coli-based process. We have deployed a two-pronged approach toward improving the manufacturability of these antigens. First, we used a functional genomics approach to identify bottlenecks experienced during cellular expression of the antigens. RNA-sequencing is a mature, inexpensive and acccessible technique for yeast that can indicate host- or sequence-derived bottlenecks in antigen transcription, translation and expression. Second, we made direct sequence changes to the antigens to mitigate specific quality challenges, such as aggregation. Iterations of this approach have enabled robust titers of rotavirus antigens with improved quality. This framework for incorporation of molecular engineering early in development provides a useful model for improving target product profiles that include manufacturability for low-costs, while maintaining immunogenicity