Today was absolutely fantastic. We were fortunate enough to be invited to the pharmaceutical production company in Buenos Aires named Adrómaco. To start off with a bit of background of the company. Adrómaco is responsible for the production of multiple notable drug store brands in Argentina as well as around the world. These product include Dermaglós and Hipoglós, which are two of the dominant cream type products sold in Argentina. In addition, Adrómaco also produces products for Aveno, an American based brand that is sold globally. Moreover, Adrómaco sells its manufactored products to the popular drug store brand named Farmacity, which could be seen all round Recoleta and all over Argentina. However, even though Adrómaco has a very stable client base currently, it might be facing considerable challenges in the future.

One of the more significant challenges that Adrómaco will potentially face is the trend of globalization. During our site visit today, I was informed that ninety percent of Adrómaco products are sold in Argentina, and only ten percent of its goods are sold globally. In addition, Adrómaco gets all of its raw materials from countries such as Brazil, China, United States, and India. From all this, we learn that Adrómaco essentially turns the intermediate goods imported from countries around the world and sells it to buyers, who are mainly drug store retailers in Argentina. My main concern with the current operations of Adrómaco is that the trend of globalization could potentially lessen, if not eliminate the necessity of a firm like Adrómaco. This is because globalization highlights the advantages of having core competency at what you do. From what I have learned today, most if not all of the equipment and machines used by Adrómaco is from Europe or other places around the world, but not Argentina. If these European countries should find a way to lower its labor costs and automize more of its production line, Adrómaco might be faced with the threat of exit in the industry.

Moreover, Adrómaco could be challenged with the unstable rates of inflation in Argentina. For example, from the effects of inflations, it will be increasingly difficult for the company to keep track of budget management, including the purchase of machines and more importantly, labor costs. Additionally, it will be considerably more difficult to maintain the product flow to seller and retail drug industry as the products that Adrómaco makes, such as different types of creams, is usually seen as a relatively elastic good. All and all, it was very informative to be able to learn about and observe the supply chain details of running a pharmaceutical manufacturing company.