Today, our group had the opportunity to visit an Argentinian pharmaceutical company, explore a bit of the San Telmo area, and learn about an important aspect of Argentina’s history. We started with Andrómaco, a pharmaceutical company that specializes in creating both medications and cosmetic products. After being split into groups, we were led by two of the company’s staff to view the laboratories and learn more about the operational processes of the factory. It was interesting to be able to see how things worked up-close and get a “behind the scenes” look at how the company creates and tests their products. While the workers who led our tour mentioned that Andrómaco makes up about 30% of the pharmaceutical industry in Argentina, I imagine that the country’s high levels of inflation and economic troubles could present challenges when it comes to the company’s success and profit levels.
According to our guides, 90% of the products created by Andrómaco are sold and prescribed within Argentina. The rest of the company’s products are exported to other countries, mostly within South America. With this in mind, Andrómaco most likely faces many of its challenges at home, competing with other pharmaceutical companies selling products in Argentina. As this country is their biggest means of making a profit, they must be constantly innovating their products and production processes in order to create and maintain a loyal basis of Argentinian customers to keep revenues high.
Something else that I thought may impact Andrómaco’s success was the amount of raw materials and production equipment they have imported from other countries. Again, the impact of inflation and the value of the Argentinian peso may cause problems for the company when buying costly materials for production from countries outside their own, therefore reducing potential profits. This seems like a problem that would be difficult to attend to, as according to our head guide, many of the materials and technologies needed for the company’s products can simply not be supplied domestically.
Overall, I really enjoyed visiting Andrómaco. It was cool to be able to actually see the production process of a company’s products, which is not a part of the supply chain that a consumer such as myself would get the chance to experience.
After our site visit, it was off to lunch (a delicious traditional Argentinian barbecue) and then to ESMA Museum, a former torture center used during Argentina’s last dictatorship turned into a memorial to promote and defend human rights. Though aspect of Argentina’s history is incredibly upsetting, it was inspiring to see the changes made by the efforts of “Las Madres del Plazo de Mayo”, the mothers of the victims of the government’s abuse during this time who fought to discover and reconnect their grandchildren that had been taken away at the time to their true families. I appreciated the fact that our program made time to include this museum in our itinerary, as I feel it isn’t spoken about often enough back home, and is an important historical event both in general and in regards to human rights specifically.
Overall, I enjoyed today being a good mix of everything ranging from healthcare to culture. That’s all for now, see you tomorrow!