Today we visited the Andromaco Pharmaceutical company in Buenos Aires. Andromaco is a company that has been around for about 90 years and produces dermatological products. 70% of what they produce is over the counter creams and emulsions, and 30% requires a prescription or is applied by a doctor. After 90 years it has developed a good reputation, but it still has its challenges.
Andromaco has a slim profit margin because of a few factors. First, the inflation the entire country suffers from also affects Andromaco. Second, sourcing their ingredients is very expensive. They important the ingredients because the ingredients aren’t found in Argentina but it’s very expensive to do so. Next, about 30% of their product is not sold, but handed out as samples. This is more of an investment than anything, however, because it’s easy advertising and assures customers of the quality of the company before they buy full size products. Finally, while they participate in research and development, they don’t make new “molecules”, as they called it. There is one company in all of Argentina that works to find new molecules to develop into products. However, there are plans for Andromaco to expand their space, increase efficiency, and start making new products to sell, so their future looks pretty good.
Andromaco’s products end up in pharmacies all over Argentina (and a few outside of the country). Other private pharmaceutical companies create product that goes to both private and public hospitals. The companies that make product for public hospitals are not subsidized by the government, thus making a lot less money than they would selling to private hospitals. Therefore, they’ve come up with the solution to cut corners and use cheaper, lower quality ingredients to make them. Unfortunately, their barrier to success could have negative implications for patients all over the country. It’ll be interesting to hear the side of the story from the public hospital, as I’m not sure they would agree to using lower quality medications.
So far, we have learned about private hospitals, Austral education, and the pharmaceutical production in Argentina. With another day in the books, we will be moving on to learn about the Ministry of Health and its role in healthcare in Argentina.