Today, we visited the factory of Andromaco, a pharmaceutical company in Buenos Aires. This factory tour is definitely the highlight of my trip so far. It was very interesting to see the production of their cream.  Not only the production, but we got to see the whole operation and got to learn about the distribution of the products. 80% of their products is cream and 90% of all products are sold and distributed in Argentina.

The factory seemed to be very successful. However, there are challenges that Andromaco faces, despite its appearance. One is that it is difficult to export their products. Only 10% of all the products are exported and they are mainly and only exported to Latin American countries. Though they do not have any regulation to export to other countries, they have challenges expanding to other markets because competing with other companies in different countries is extremely difficult.

Another challenge that Andromaco faces is controlling the air and not polluting the factory. Before we entered the factory, we all had to wear a hair net, a lab coat, and shoe covers. We first headed to the room with the raw materials. After receiving the raw materials, the initial processing was done in a separate, enclosed room with more protection for the workers to make sure that the air will not contaminate the material.

As for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, the biggest challenge is dealing with the inflation and the instability of the country’s economy.  At Andromaco, I was told that almost all machines are imported from European countries as well as the raw materials are imported from Brazil, the United States, China, and India. Because the technology produced in Argentina is not as advanced, companies end up paying way more to obtain those European machines than they would if the advanced machines were able to be produced domestically. Another challenge the industry faces is the regulations and auditing. They are audited to make sure the imports meet the standards and rules as well as for the exports. However, like Andromaco, I feel that any Argentinian pharmaceutical companies have difficulties expanding to other countries just because the competition with the companies at those companies is way too high.

I felt that I was able to learn a lot today. Tomorrow is a long and busy day. I look forward to learning about public hospitals.