Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Promoting Medical Tourism ● 111Table 5.3 Indicators of research and development (technology creation)Patents2002R&Dexpenditureas a % of GDP1997–2002Researchersin R&D permillion people1990–2003Quality ofscientificresearchinstituteCollaborationsbetweenindustry anduniversityArgentina n.a. 0.4 715 4.0 3.0Chile n.a. 0.5 419 3.9 3.1Costa Rica 1 0.2 370 4.3 3.4Cuba 0 0.5 538 n.a. n.a.India n.a. n.a. n.a. 5.1 3.3Jordan n.a. n.a. 1,977 3.7 2.8Malaysia n.a. 0.7 294 5.0 4.7Philippines 0 n.a. n.a. 3.3 2.7S. Africa 0 0.7 192 4.7 4.2Thailand n.a. 0.2 289 4.0 3.6Note : Patents refer to the number of patents given per million people; last two columns refer to perceptions1–7 (reaction to questions: scientific research institutions in your country are [1 nonexistent, 7 thebest in their fields internationally; in its R&D activity, business collaboration with local universities is[1 minimal or nonexistent, 7 = intensive and ongoing])Source : United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2005, (New York: UNDP,2005), table 13; and World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report 2005–06, (New York: PalgraveMacmillan, 2006), tables 3.05, and 3.07.(the latter is licensed for development and marketing by CancerVaxCorporation in California 63 ). For the former, the World Intellectual PropertyOrganization (WIPO) awarded Cuba the Gold Medal in 2002. (Incidentally,this is not the only award that Cuba’s medical researchers have received: forits research in ophthalmology, the Cienfuegos International Retinosis Centerin Havana received the Ibero-American Quality Award for Excellence,Science chose the research of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicinein Havana as one of the twelve worldwide to recognize in its 125th anniversaryissue. 64 ) Altogether, more than 500 different medical products aremanufactured locally by the Cuban pharmaceutical industry. 65Cuba is so advanced in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors that Indiais trying to engage it in a technology transfer, especially in the area of vaccines.That does not mean that India is lagging behind in overall researchand development. To the contrary, India is one of the world’s leaders inbiotechnology research. Its government has promoted the biotech andpharma industries, and as a result, India has the world’s fourth largestpharmaceutical industry (producing mostly generic drugs). 66 One of itsfirms, Bharat Biotech, produces a hepatitis B vaccine using Bharat’s proprietarytechnology (that can supply the vaccine at low cost to developing