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Conversation highlights:
BMS Argentina has become a strategic hub for clinical research, with the company surpassing 100 clinical trials and investing $60 million in R&D over four years.
The company is expanding from its oncology foundation into new therapeutic areas, including immunology, cardiovascular treatments, and rare hematology conditions.
Argentina´s competitive advantage in investments lies in its highly educated healthcare professionals, efficient regulatory framework, and accelerated clinical trial approval timelines.
Advanced therapies like CAR-T cell treatments are being pioneered in Argentina as one of the first Latin American markets to receive this investment to develop clinical trials.
Access to innovation requires integrated strategies that go beyond simple payer agreements to include outcome-based and value-based partnerships.
Artificial intelligence is transforming daily operations from drug discovery to personalized market strategies, while maintaining the essential human connection in patient care.
EF: Looking at 2026, what are your current priorities, and what opportunities do you see?
SK: This is a really exciting moment for the company in Argentina. We are expanding our oncology and hematology portfolios while diving deep into new therapeutic areas. While we have a history of immunology in the country, we are now bringing new therapies for diseases we weren't addressing a few years ago. We're also expanding into cardiovascular treatments for a subset of patients with a rare condition that represents a specific indication within the cardiovascular sector, a high unmet need.
We're also focusing on specific hematology sectors with particularly prevalent diseases in the blood anemia market, including a type of anemia associated with European immigrants. Expanding within all these therapeutic areas is both a challenge and a priority. We need to understand the ecosystem in each one. Clinical research is also a priority, and 2026 will be a major milestone for Argentina. We are surpassing 100 clinical trials nationwide. This confirms Argentina as one of the priority markets in Latin America for bringing the innovation that clinical trials represent to our region, across immunology, oncology, hematology, cardiovascular, and neuroscience, which have been among the company's key therapeutic areas over the last two or three years.
EF: What makes Argentina so strategically significant to the company? Why should someone in a boardroom in New Jersey allocate dollars to Argentina instead of somewhere else in the world?
SK: The company has been in Argentina for more than 75 years. When we look at the pharmaceutical landscape, we have roots in the country. Argentina has a record of investing in talent, developing strong healthcare professionals and physicians, and fostering an innovative mindset. When we think of the Argentinian physician, a model healthcare professional who has an innovative mindset, is well-prepared, and highly educated, we often see them as a reference across all Latin American countries. In Argentina, we also have a regulatory framework and a regulatory authority that serve as references within Latin America. Our regulatory agency is widely recognized as highly professional.
Argentina is returning to the international ecosystem, showing signs that it wants to play in the major leagues and partner with the European Union and the US. We also have trade agreements within our region, but Argentina is now bringing these signs to the world.
A critical component of this shift is the evolution of Argentina’s intellectual property environment after the signing of ARTI (US – Argentina on Reciprocal Trade and Investment). There is a growing recognition that strengthening IP frameworks—particularly in innovation-driven sectors such as biopharmaceuticals—is essential for attracting investment and fostering sustainable growth. Continued progress in this area will be key to Argentina fully consolidating its position as a credible and competitive partner in the global innovation landscape.
If we look back about eight years, Argentina has undergone significant changes and has evolved its approach to international investment in clinical research. We have worked as a country to accelerate clinical trial progress. When you compare our timelines to those of European and Asian markets, we have really efficient timelines for clinical trial approval. When you think about investments that require expanding the number of patients enrolled in a clinical trial and considering timelines, education, and infrastructure, Argentina is one of the top markets in the world.
EF: How does Argentina remain competitive as other markets start pushing to conduct trials in their regions?
SK: There is no one single factor. We need to look at the ecosystem, because these are not short-term investments. We have to consider the infrastructure in hospitals, the knowledge of healthcare professionals, and the experience. We need to build this up. We can´t create this kind of progress overnight. It’s about building bridges over time — between science, institutions, and patients, step by step.
Companies stay competitive by embracing new technologies. At BMS, we have been investigating oncology, hematology, cardiovascular, and immunology in Argentina, but we are bringing advanced cell therapies to our market. For the first time in our history, Argentina is one of the countries that is leading the way in Latin America, with the company's first advanced cell therapy studies. We are among the really few companies when we think about these technologies, one of only a handful of pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
BMS has made a huge investment in Argentina. Over the last four years, in terms of R&D, we have invested $60 million locally. If we talk about the advanced cell therapy clinical trials program, with only two protocols since last year, we have received an additional $8 million in investment.
When we build that capacity, knowledge, and reference network, this can go on an exponential trajectory. In advanced cell therapy, we have started with only one site; now we have four, and we are escalating this to bring more clinical trials and new technologies to the country to benefit more patients. When we think about this, you are talking about a highly technical treatment, a personalized treatment where we design a solution for one patient at a time. This has capacity constraints because we cannot expand it worldwide for all patients. The company decided last year to invest in Argentina as it’s one of the top countries in Latin America.
This is a path we are building, but it's built on our history and reputation as a company in the country. But you need time to build this. This is not something that's going to happen from morning to afternoon.
EF: How do you assess access to innovation from your perspective, and what is the company doing to advance this?
SK: When I think about access, I come back to my early days in 2002 when I started, and no one was talking about access at that moment in time in the world, despite the fact that for Argentina, it was always a challenge because of a fragmented system in terms of access and reimbursement. Today, we can see access as a trending topic worldwide. This is a challenge we have been working on over the years.
The other thing is partnering with payers and governments at the national and provincial levels, because each payer faces different challenges. One-size-fits-all is not the solution. We cannot think of a single solution for all payers. We need to understand the burden on that payer and the challenges they face. It's quite different when we think about a payer serving working people rather than retired or disabled people. The challenge is different.
First, we need to think and build a solution together, understanding their pain points and how we can help make this innovation or treatment accessible to the population, while also understanding what is meaningful to them. We are working on different types of agreements: outcome-based agreements, innovative value-based agreements, and looking at the ecosystem as a whole, not only specific solutions. This is going to be an investment. We need to think about this investment and understand that outdated innovations that have been around for almost 20 or 30 years can also be part of the solution, and we may need to make some adjustments or efficiencies there to bring more access to new technologies.
I see access as an integrated strategy. This is not only making an agreement with one payer or another. When we think about access and bringing innovation, we need to think about the cycle, a virtuous cycle. When we invest in innovation, we are bringing the latest technology to our patients. This has a cost because innovation involves bringing in the latest technologies. And if we think about this as a virtuous circle, see it as an investment, it's quite different from seeing innovation as a cost.
EF: Looking at the ecosystem as a whole, what decisions do we need to make today or this year to have a healthier population by 2030?
SK: We are investigating technologies where there are no regulatory frameworks at all. For instance, advanced cell therapies. We need to start designing the regulatory framework that embraces these new technologies by 2030.
We are bringing innovative treatments for conditions like neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune disorders, and rare diseases. These are high unmet needs. When we think about a patient with these diseases, we think about a higher unmet need in terms of the solutions we need to bring to these patients. But we need to start building and designing these frameworks now in close collaboration with the entire health system.
Developing future regulatory frameworks is a collective effort that requires early dialogue and collaboration across governments, regulators, healthcare systems, industry, and society.
EF: We haven't talked about AI or digitalization yet. What does the company of the future look like, and what kind of resources and people do you need as you shape the company of the future?
SK: I started my career without a cellphone, so you can imagine what my challenge is in terms of introducing AI to BMS in Argentina. AI is a fascinating arena for me. I try to learn as much as possible. I am so impressed by the investment in AI that BMS is making, not only to enhance the drug development process, but also in how we can use AI to optimize predictions about how compounds are going to connect. We are using it to expedite the process of discovering new drugs, but also in how we work on a daily basis.
This is going to change the way that medicine looks. I think about healthcare professionals using AI for diagnosis or to support their decisions. This is not going to replace human beings. For us, it's really important to say that humans won't be replaced. But if you are not using AI or adopting it, you are going to be replaced by someone who is, because it will unlock opportunities and probably take us to unknown limits as a species, but with responsibility and in compliance with all legal and compliance frameworks.
We are deeply committed to using these technologies in a compliant and responsible way. That is why the company continuously invests in training and upskilling our teams, so that AI is deployed every day with sound judgment, clear governance, and full alignment with our legal and compliance standards.
EF: How do you see the balance between AI advancement and maintaining human connection in healthcare?
SK: The clinic and the patient, and where it hurts, is going to always be human, and how the patient brings this to you in a conversation, because we need to have that first conversation with the patient to understand what is hurting, what is the burden that this patient is having. Having said that, probably all the technologies coming will arrive at a really accelerated pace, and for a human being, it's going to be quite challenging to stay up to date. But with the use of AI and the entry of all this information that patients bring, this is going to be a facilitator.
Still, the human connection, mostly in our countries, Argentina, we are Latin. We still believe that human connection is important. There are people who will not be willing to interact with a robot and will want a human there to care. I think that is something that is quite important for patients now, to take care of them.
But think about these new smart watches. They can measure your blood pressure and heartbeat, predict whether you are having a heart attack, and send a notice to the hospital or an emergency contact. Think about all these situations that really happen on a daily basis, and the technology is there supporting us. I think we need to see this as something that will change our future, as the internet did.
