The role of public policies in building up a national pharmaceutical innovation system in Tunisia: challenges after the Jasmine Revolution

The economic literature emphasizes the importance of technological innovation as a key determinant of structural competitiveness, both for firms and countries. Building such competitiveness has long been linked to the developed world. In the last two decades, however, several developing countries have increasingly worked on setting-up innovation systems to strengthen their structural competitiveness in many sectors. This chapter explores the role of Tunisian public policies in building up the national pharmaceutical innovation system and the challenges faced by the country after the ‘Jasmine Revolution’. We try to answer two central questions: (1) have the pharmaceutical innovation policies in Tunisia been efficient before the Jasmine Revolution? (2) to what extent would the sought-after political democracy enforce a genuine innovation take-off in the Tunisian pharmaceutical sector? To answer these questions, we first evaluate innovation activities and processes in the Tunisian pharmaceutical industry before the revolution. This evaluation is based on an analysis of the national sectoral innovation system and on a survey of the Tunisian pharmaceutical firms. We then explore the public policies set up since the Jasmine Revolution and discuss their expected impact on the prospects of pharmaceutical innovation catch-up in Tunisia.