I think one of the topics I was most interested to investigate further was the pharmaceutical industry, and today, we had the opportunity to visit Andrómcao, a company almost 100 years old, known for producing topical creams. 80% of their output is focused on these creams, such as Hipoglós, which is meant to treat baby rashes. As a smaller company that is family owned, they are very strict in following the rules and pay attention to every detail that is required by ANMAT, the regulatory system of Argentina under the Ministry of Health. Andrómaco is audited about every two years for a full two weeks as they thoroughly ensure that every procedure is being done properly. The pharmacist who gave us the tour showed us the booklet that they keep on hand which lists every regulation. Due to their transparency and ability to comply with every law, they have a friendly relation with the Ministry of Health.

While there are areas for research and development of new products in the lab, the majority of the company is focused on the manufacturing process. They receive raw materials from suppliers that are located internationally, such as the United States, Brazil, and China. Then, they work to manufacture their products and distribute them o mainly pharmacies nationally and throughout Latin America using technology that is from mainly Germany and Italy. Interestingly, they made a political decision to not export outside these areas because it is much cheaper to focus on a smaller region that is not competing with other pharmaceutical manufacturers.

They are able to produce between 40 and 160 units per minute depending on the machine while producing five different products at once because of five different filling lines. When switching lines for a new product on the same machine however, they must be very thorough in cleaning the parts to ensure there is no crossover, which is highly regulated by the quality control team. During this process, they incorporate a full track and trace system in which a specific barcode is applied to a product and is followed until it is sold. I recently did research on this system and thought that their execution of the process was very useful and efficient as they have been using it for about ten years now. Each month the marketing department expresses a monthly plan for batch sizes using data from historical records, which was unique to hear about considering our lecture yesterday about the Kanban supply system. Also to note is that 30% of each batch are samples.

Overall, the visit was very interesting to me and pertained greatly to the presentation my group will be giving next week as a case study for the pharmaceutical industry in Argentina. In terms of challenges for the Andrómaco, I think the main necessity is to follow all the regulations instilled by ANMAT very closely all the time in order to be the most successful, despite how much time and inefficiency this requires. Moreover, the financial aspect of the industry makes it very difficult to remain competitive as the high expenses of their own distribution create a low-profit-margin. More generally for the pharmaceutical industry, I think the high fluctuation tendency of the inflation rate also creates an issue in forming a sustainable business. The industry is rapidly changing, requiring more advanced technologies that are not very accessible specifically in Argentina so it will be interesting to see how they continue to adapt.

After the site visit, we ventured to San Telmo where we ate, ate, and ate some more. I finally got to try the famous and, confirmed delicious, asado. We also had time to walk around the neighborhood and shop where there were many antique shops. The next stop was to the ESMA museum, a place where they remember the kidnapped children of the 1970s under a strict military government. Although sad, the art and photographs beautifully depicted many of the reunions of families and their strong hope for identity.

Tomorrow will be a long day, but I am looking forward to interacting with the community health centers, which I predict will be very different from the more advanced healthcare businesses we have witnessed so far.