Sofosbuvir-based medicines, approved in late 2013, offer a long-sought after cure for patients with hepatitis C, a virus that disproportionately affects marginalized populations around the world. But the prices set by its manufacturer at approximately $90,000 for a three- month regimen intensified a global debate about the pricing of breakthrough medicines. The dominant economic explanations for pricing have centered on ‘risk’, with prices representing the costly and failure-ridden process of drug development, and ‘value’, with higher prices said to reflect improvements in patient health as well as savings from averted downstream medical expenses. These economic explanations are limited, however, by their focus on prices at the point of exchange between drug manufacturers and public health systems. Instead, I took a historical view, using the case of sofosbuvir to trace the political- economic dynamics and organizational relations of power across the innovation process – from early stage science to deployment. Data from documentary sources, semi-structured interviews, databases, and observations at meetings allowed me to build an account of the sofosbuvir case. Combining this data with sociological and political economy literatures on the roles of an entrepreneurial state, the rise of financial capital, and the pricing and valuation strategies used by businesses, I argue that sofosbuvir’s prices did not represent the tangible costs of innovation or the health value for patients. Rather, the prices were a product of financialization: a pattern of accumulation in which growth was pursued through the capitalization and control of intangible hepatitis C assets in financial markets. As part of this pattern, I map the mobilization of speculative capitals behind Pharmasset, a small biotechnology company that emerged from public investments to develop the compound sofosbuvir, as well as the extractive logics driving the shareholders of Gilead Sciences, a large publicly traded pharmaceutical company that ultimately acquired Pharmasset and then set the prices for the therapy. I demonstrate that though an entrepreneurial state shaped the direction of the innovation process towards a curative therapy, the processes of financialization disconnected the distribution of risks and rewards, undermined the sustainability of future innovation, and diminished patient and public health outcomes. I conclude by responding to dominant economic answers on drug pricing in light of the evidence on financialization.

Neste trabalho discutem-se as políticas de implementação de software livre no Brasil dos governos do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, do Paraná e da União Federativa, de 2002 a 2008. O objetivo foi compreender os procedimentos de legitimação pública destas políticas. E para esta análise focou-se a atuação dos gestores das políticas, cujos objetivos mais destacados eram o de alcançar a autonomia tecnológica e o de instituir práticas colaborativas para o desenvolvimento. Como referencial teórico, discutiu-se a inovação técnica situada como parte da teoria habermasiana sobre a racionalização moral-prática das relações sociais institucionalizadas de uma sociedade histórica. Coletou-se, para tanto, material jornalístico e documentos disponíveis na internet, que contivessem os discursos dos gestores em busca da legitimação pública das políticas analisadas. Com o material empírico se pôde observar uma ação administrativa, no que diz respeito ao discurso dos gestores, para a legitimação das políticas. Entre as instâncias observadas, que validaram tal hipótese, está a predominância da atuação do Poder Executivo na condução das políticas, a identificação das qualidades técnicas do software livre com a solução de problemas sociais e a assimilação imediata de uma ética particular no âmbito da vida pública. Conclui-se que as políticas de implementação do software livre no Brasil, sem passarem pelo crivo de uma justificação pública e racional, não engendraram um ambiente autônomo de inovação para este setor da economia informacional. Elas tiveram por base a conquista de privilégios políticos por um grupo particular da sociedade civil, em um país de marco institucional historicamente refratário à autonomia dos sujeitos. / In this article we discussed the free software implementation policies in Brazil in the federal government, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, from 2002 to 2008. The aim of this study is to comprehend the procedure behind the public legitimation of these policies. In order to develop this analysis, we have focused on the action of the managers of these policies, whose most highlighted objectives were those of trying to achieve technological autonomy and of establishing collaborative practices towards economic growth. As a theoretical framework, the technical innovation debate was placed as part of Habermas' theory about the moral-practical rationalization of a society. Journalistic material available on the Internet which contained those managers' discourse to pursue the public legitimation of the analysed policies was therefore gathered. Thus it was possible to observe an administrative action towards the legitimations of the policies. Among the observed instances that have validated such hypothesis are the predominant action of the Executive Branch in dealing with the policies and the identification of the technical qualities of the free software with the solution of social problems. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the policies of implementation of the free software in Brazil did not create an autonomous environment of innovation for this sector of the national informational economy. Those policies were based on the achievements of political privileges by a particular group of the civil society, in a country of institutional framework historically contrary to citizen’s public autonomy.

Neste trabalho discutem-se as políticas de implementação de software livre no Brasil dos governos do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, do Paraná e da União Federativa, de 2002 a 2008. O objetivo foi compreender os procedimentos de legitimação pública destas políticas. E para esta análise focou-se a atuação dos gestores das políticas, cujos objetivos mais destacados eram o de alcançar a autonomia tecnológica e o de instituir práticas colaborativas para o desenvolvimento. Como referencial teórico, discutiu-se a inovação técnica situada como parte da teoria habermasiana sobre a racionalização moral-prática das relações sociais institucionalizadas de uma sociedade histórica. Coletou-se, para tanto, material jornalístico e documentos disponíveis na internet, que contivessem os discursos dos gestores em busca da legitimação pública das políticas analisadas. Com o material empírico se pôde observar uma ação administrativa, no que diz respeito ao discurso dos gestores, para a legitimação das políticas. Entre as instâncias observadas, que validaram tal hipótese, está a predominância da atuação do Poder Executivo na condução das políticas, a identificação das qualidades técnicas do software livre com a solução de problemas sociais e a assimilação imediata de uma ética particular no âmbito da vida pública. Conclui-se que as políticas de implementação do software livre no Brasil, sem passarem pelo crivo de uma justificação pública e racional, não engendraram um ambiente autônomo de inovação para este setor da economia informacional. Elas tiveram por base a conquista de privilégios políticos por um grupo particular da sociedade civil, em um país de marco institucional historicamente refratário à autonomia dos sujeitos. / In this article we discussed the free software implementation policies in Brazil in the federal government, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, from 2002 to 2008. The aim of this study is to comprehend the procedure behind the public legitimation of these policies. In order to develop this analysis, we have focused on the action of the managers of these policies, whose most highlighted objectives were those of trying to achieve technological autonomy and of establishing collaborative practices towards economic growth. As a theoretical framework, the technical innovation debate was placed as part of Habermas' theory about the moral-practical rationalization of a society. Journalistic material available on the Internet which contained those managers' discourse to pursue the public legitimation of the analysed policies was therefore gathered. Thus it was possible to observe an administrative action towards the legitimations of the policies. Among the observed instances that have validated such hypothesis are the predominant action of the Executive Branch in dealing with the policies and the identification of the technical qualities of the free software with the solution of social problems. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the policies of implementation of the free software in Brazil did not create an autonomous environment of innovation for this sector of the national informational economy. Those policies were based on the achievements of political privileges by a particular group of the civil society, in a country of institutional framework historically contrary to citizen’s public autonomy.

Neste trabalho discutem-se as políticas de implementação de software livre no Brasil dos governos do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, do Paraná e da União Federativa, de 2002 a 2008. O objetivo foi compreender os procedimentos de legitimação pública destas políticas. E para esta análise focou-se a atuação dos gestores das políticas, cujos objetivos mais destacados eram o de alcançar a autonomia tecnológica e o de instituir práticas colaborativas para o desenvolvimento. Como referencial teórico, discutiu-se a inovação técnica situada como parte da teoria habermasiana sobre a racionalização moral-prática das relações sociais institucionalizadas de uma sociedade histórica. Coletou-se, para tanto, material jornalístico e documentos disponíveis na internet, que contivessem os discursos dos gestores em busca da legitimação pública das políticas analisadas. Com o material empírico se pôde observar uma ação administrativa, no que diz respeito ao discurso dos gestores, para a legitimação das políticas. Entre as instâncias observadas, que validaram tal hipótese, está a predominância da atuação do Poder Executivo na condução das políticas, a identificação das qualidades técnicas do software livre com a solução de problemas sociais e a assimilação imediata de uma ética particular no âmbito da vida pública. Conclui-se que as políticas de implementação do software livre no Brasil, sem passarem pelo crivo de uma justificação pública e racional, não engendraram um ambiente autônomo de inovação para este setor da economia informacional. Elas tiveram por base a conquista de privilégios políticos por um grupo particular da sociedade civil, em um país de marco institucional historicamente refratário à autonomia dos sujeitos. / In this article we discussed the free software implementation policies in Brazil in the federal government, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, from 2002 to 2008. The aim of this study is to comprehend the procedure behind the public legitimation of these policies. In order to develop this analysis, we have focused on the action of the managers of these policies, whose most highlighted objectives were those of trying to achieve technological autonomy and of establishing collaborative practices towards economic growth. As a theoretical framework, the technical innovation debate was placed as part of Habermas' theory about the moral-practical rationalization of a society. Journalistic material available on the Internet which contained those managers' discourse to pursue the public legitimation of the analysed policies was therefore gathered. Thus it was possible to observe an administrative action towards the legitimations of the policies. Among the observed instances that have validated such hypothesis are the predominant action of the Executive Branch in dealing with the policies and the identification of the technical qualities of the free software with the solution of social problems. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the policies of implementation of the free software in Brazil did not create an autonomous environment of innovation for this sector of the national informational economy. Those policies were based on the achievements of political privileges by a particular group of the civil society, in a country of institutional framework historically contrary to citizen’s public autonomy.

Structurée autour de l’étude longitudinale de quatre projets, cette thèse questionne la portée de l’innovation centrée usagers en analysant, dans la diversité de leur planification et de leurs épreuves, les trajectoires collectives initiées par la consigne − commune mais labile − invitant des équipes-projet à impliquer des usagers « réels » dans le processus d’innovation. En mobilisant les apports croisés de la sociologie de l’innovation et de la sociologie des usages, elle explore plus spécifiquement les conditions d’élaboration des stratégies d’intéressement convoquées par cette consigne, les dispositifs de confrontation aux situations d’usage échafaudés ainsi que les principes de catégorisation des usagers que les acteurs mobilisent pour décrire le processus d’innovation à l’oeuvre et tenter de l’infléchir. En visant le développement d’innovations commer-so-cialisables, ces projets investissent dans les usagers qu’ils convoquent des préoccupations, des aspirations et des contraintes inégalement distribuées au sein des équipes-projet. Au-delà des épreuves propres à chaque histoire partenariale, cette thèse propose de questionner les conditions de réalisation d’une innovation plus « participative » dans le monde connexionniste et court-termiste de la Cité par projets. / Based on the longitudinal study of four projects, this thesis examine the impact of user-centered innovation development by analyzing the collective trajectories compelled by the instruction − common but ambiguous − that invites the project teams to involve “real users” in the innovation process. By referring on intersected contributions in sociology of innovation and sociology of the uses of ICTs, I explore more specifically the strategies of enrolment, the protocols for interact with users and the different ways to categorize the users that the actors choose to describe the innovation process and try to control it. Focused on the development of socio-marketable products and services, these projects place on users various purposes and matters of concern that are unevenly distributed in the project teams. Beyond the specific proofs in each trajectory, this thesis aims to challenge the possibility of developing an innovation more “participative” in the short-term world of the Projects-oriented Cité.