107 - Innovation and Complementary Capabilities for medical devices and diagnostics in the times of Covid 19: A case of Low- Middle Income Countries

The Covid 19 pandemic has exposed the risk and challenges associated with a growing reliance on the global supply chains of healthcare technology industries. It highlighted that the deterioration of production capacity in high-income economies and the lack of manufacturing capabilities in LMICs had created questions about the resilience of national industrial systems, global supply chains and public health security. Nevertheless, this period also witnessed an impressive range of scaling up and product innovation by LMICs based manufacturers to meet local pandemic needs. The pandemic forced countries to rapidly increase their technological capabilities in diagnostic kits, PPEs and medicines. Covid-19 responses have generated a good deal of potential for future action in the form of resources, structures and expertise (Srinivas el al., 2021). This strong response from LMICs raises two critical questions: Why were some countries able to develop much-needed innovations for responding to Covid 19 pandemic compared to others? And following on from that: How are these opportunities to be sustained through better priorities in the application of resources, structures, linkages, political will and expertise?

This project will focus on the experience of a selected group of firms and countries with distinctive levels of capabilities and regulatory, cultural and business contexts – India, South Africa, and Uruguay. It will involve studying the mix, alignment and co-evolution of critical capabilities – innovation, manufacturing and complementarity – that enabled countries, the firms, research organisations and regulatory institutions involved in their development to introduce them successfully to markets. The aim will be to identify the mix of critical capabilities within firms and between firms and regulators that unlocked the development of new technological solutions. We will focus on understanding the challenges faced by countries and firms at different stages, from development, testing and/or manufacturing to market introduction. It will further involve learning about the institutional architecture that enabled these countries to mobilise the effective response and the different ways employed by these countries to develop sustainability by ensuring effective demand.
,br>Finally, we will focus on identifying the measures that could be taken to consolidate this capacity and ways to build on these innovations to be ready for the next crisis.