Strategic evaluations and techno-economic networks. Vaccine innovation in the Cuban biotech sector: for public health – or for profits?

Abstract

In this paper the Cuban biotech sector with its highly integrated vaccine industry is analyzed in the perspective of the techno-economic network model of Michel Callon. The paper discusses the strategic evaluations that have been performed in the sector. Given the emphasis on public health displayed by the Cuban government and the precarious condition of the Cuban economy (at least during the last 20 years), the strategic evaluations could be seen as an articulation of the (sometimes conflicting) interests of public health and commercialism. The main issue to be discussed in the present paper is how interests related to public health and economic considerations are articulated and balanced in the strategic evaluations that have been made in the Cuban biotech sector. There is a focus on the vaccine related activities of the sector, which will be loosely referred to as the Cuban vaccine industry. This is the first of two papers about the Cuban bitoech sector and vaccine industry.Innovation systems, techno-economic networks, Cuba, vaccines, biotechnology