Mexico   Exactly 10 years ago Mexico realized that its public healthcare provision was inadequate as it was based on a system of employment benefits. This left over 50 million Mexicans without healthcare coverage because they were largely employed by the country’s widespread informal economy. The implementation of the Seguro Popular…

Aspen Labs Marked socio-economic differences in Mexico are playing an important role in pushing the uptake of generics, and these issues are starting to affect multinational corporations (MNCs). MNCs are being forced to open up and diversify, quite simply to have their fingers in as many pies where they can compete successfully.…

Economy   “As Mexicans we must be prepared for a new stage of our country’s development”. These were the inspiring words of newly elected Mexican President Peña Nieto, who has promised to transform Mexico into a competitive global power. As the world’s thirteenth largest economy, there is no question that Mexico…

Government Regulation   President Santos appointed economist Alejandro Gaviria as the new Minister of Health and Social Protection in September 2012. Gaviria’s priority has been to create health reform that would introduce the next episode of Colombia’s payer system, following the introduction of Law 100 in 1993, which extended health coverage to…

government relations   Under the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia is focusing on bolstering the commercial sector. Thanks to the ratification of free trade agreements with 14 countries around the world since 2011, including the United States, foreign direct investment reached a record high of COP 29 trillion ($16 billion)…

A Regulatory Overview of the Mexican Healthcare market by ALEJANDRO LUNA FANDIÑO, Partner  Olivares & Cia. Olivares & Cia T +52 55 5322 3080 F +52 55 5322 3001 E mailto:alf@olivares.com.mx W www.olivares.com.mx I. Pricing & Reimbursement.  Price control in the private sector is based on a scheme of self-…

Mexico Beyond the bright lights of Mexico City’s Santa Fe and Polanco districts, roughly half of Mexicans lack access to quality healthcare or medicines. This presents a challenge for pharma companies in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR). To Miguel Múnera, general manager for Roche Mexico, CSR isn’t just a way…

Mexico In the late 1990s, Rodrigo Herrera Aspra wanted to commercialize a new anti-acne formulation, and was advised by a friend who was involved in the pharmaceutical industry to hire a group of medical reps. “After thinking on this issue, I concluded there was something wrong with a business model in…

Biotech As in many emerging countries, it is taking a while for Mexican legislation to catch up with the latest technologies. Alejandra Mendoza, general manager of Genzyme Mexico, says that regulation has been the main challenge her firm has had to face. “We were pioneers in biotech in Mexico, so we…

  Over ten years ago, the economic concept of the ‘BRIC’ countries- Brazil, Russia, India and China – was formed, and it’s pretty much all we’ve heard about ever since. Yet earlier this year, the very same man who coined the term – Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs…

Mexico Despite being in the Mexican market for over twenty years, biosimilars have never been regulated as a separate entity. They have always been regulated as simply another category of generic medicines.  “This enabled almost unmonitored competition from China, India, South Korea and other fast-growing countries, which sometimes caused more damage…

  Considered to be Latin America’s economic powerhouse, Chile is typically a solitary country that is forgotten, or remembered, because it is the most politically and economically stable in the region and therefore produces minimal headlines for the world—unless they involve tragic seismic events or heroic mining rescues. This loosely-populated…