Pharmaceutical companies differ in the types of products they produce and sell. Multinationals operating in Latin America focus on marketing and selling originator products and branded generics developed by their parent companies, some of which may be produced domestically. Local firms, conversely, use mostly imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to produce generic drugs, which they sell at lower prices than imported products. Increasingly, they also produce biosimilar products.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the world's most important sectors and is intensive in capital. The production of innovative drugs is strong in research and development (R & D), bringing an increased expectation of life to Latin America in the last 20 years, but this requires high costs. The main actors in the pharma industry are large traditional multinationals from Western Europe and the US. But new players have emerged in recent years, including multinationals from China, India, and South Korea, and local firms from a relatively narrow group of developing countries. Players belonging to these three groups of firms can be found, to varying extents, in the pharmaceutical sectors of most countries in Latin American and the Caribbean, see Table 1.

Table 1: Top 10 pharmaceutical companies by revenue

The pharmaceutical industry also generates a positive impact on communities, society and the economy of the region. In particular, a direct impact through employment generation and gross value added; and indirectly, through the creation of demand in other industries.

In order to get an idea of which pharmaceutical products are available in Latin America and the Caribbean, or whether they are overly expensive, it is required and understanding of how the pharmaceutical sector is organized and regulated in practice and what is the potential for external and foreign players to meet the needs of the population.

The Latin American Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (ALIFAR), a non-profit international association independent of governments and intergovernmental bodies, is the umbrella organization for nationally owned companies in the pharmaceutical industry in Latin American countries. Currently, ALIFAR brings together more than 400 companies from 12 Latin American countries, representing more than 90% of the regional pharmaceutical market.

The following series of articles discuss the study results of pharmaceuticals development in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Caribbean countries like Costa Rica and Cuba.

Related articles
Challenges for Chinese companies to bring biosimilars (copy biologicals) to EU

Market outlook for biological medicines in Brazil (2016-2025)

A European pharmaceutical strategy promoting generics and biosimilars

Reference
1. Vargas V, Rama M, Singh R. Pharmaceuticals in Latin America and the Caribbean players, access, and innovation across diverse models. 3 January 2022. World Bank. Available from: ttps://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/36871 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

Permission granted to reproduce for personal and non-commercial use only. All other reproduction, copy or reprinting of all or part of any ‘Content’ found on this website is strictly prohibited without the prior consent of the publisher. Contact the publisher to obtain permission before redistributing.

Copyright – Unless otherwise stated all contents of this website are © 2022 Pro Pharma Communications International. All Rights Reserved.