Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Health has reclaimed a priority spot in Mexico's national agenda, moving from the top ten topics to the top five over the past decade.
- The regulatory backlog is slowly picking up after years of stagnation, with both government and private industry now committed to expediting market access and building more efficient processes.
- Advancing on universal coverage and establishing a clear vision for digital health technologies represent the two critical objectives for Mexico's next five years.
- Use of data, collection, management, mining, and publication in the public healthcare system, which serves 90% of the population, remains the fundamental first step toward digital transformation.
- Private healthcare models like Mas Salud, Doctor Simi, and Salud Digna are organically driving primary care and use of data, with thousands of units collecting patient data across the country.
- The company of the future in Mexico must become more agile, develop new digital capabilities, and work collaboratively with peers and authorities to navigate the complex payer landscape.
EF: Looking back over the past decade and forward to the next 4 years (2030), what are two key achievements Mexico has made in life sciences and one critical objective for the future?
FJC: Health has reclaimed a priority spot in the national agenda. Ten years ago, when we were approaching decision makers, health was perhaps within the top ten topics, but wasn't making the top five. The pandemic, despite being a dramatic event, exposed huge gaps and created positive outcomes by highlighting unmet needs around universal coverage, expediting market access times, and building more resilient healthcare ecosystems that can bring innovation in a sustainable way.
The regulatory process has also evolved significantly. Ten years ago, the regulatory watchdog was making progress in putting together the framework. Despite some setbacks, we now have commitment on both sides, from government and private industry, to work together and expedite market access while building a more efficient regulatory framework. This opens doors for collaboration in bringing digital technologies forward.
For the next four years, one objective would be expanding effective coverage to finally materialize universal healthcare. Right now, it exists on paper, but there's still a long way to go. The other goal would be to have a clear vision about how digital health technologies can evolve and deliver impact for patients in Mexico. We have a huge gap in electronic medical records, which affects portability, so patients can receive healthcare and treatment at any institution. The private industry continues pushing this agenda, but when it comes to putting it at the service of the patient, there's significant work ahead.
EF: If we consider “healthcare data” as a “natural resource”, where should Mexico start in building data architecture and infrastructure? Who should lead this process?
FJC: The first step would be gathering the data, because in Mexico's public setting, which serves 90% of the population, there are incomplete sets of data. That would be the first milestone, enabling data collection, mining, gathering insights, and using them to make optimal policy decisions, like where to deploy infrastructure and specialists, make a better profile of the population, and provide regionalized or hyper-personalized healthcare.
Even in the private setting, the opportunity is enormous. I’ll give an example: in private hospital chains, if you get your annual medical checkup at one location and return the next year to another location of the same chain, they won't have your record available because it's stored only locally at that specific location. So, they have no visibility of your previous findings, and something worth looking at can slip by. And so, this lack of electronic/digital records in both private and public settings hinders portability and ultimately cripples effective access to healthcare.
After the pandemic, we've seen a surge of digital health tech startups that could help tackle these initial steps. But we have to recognize we're at very early stages of implementing digital technologies in healthcare. A key milestone is helping physicians make the process easier so they can validate data on digital platforms after seeing patients and providing them with the necessary interfaces and technologies to capture and process data.
EF: Is this digital transformation happening organically in Mexico's healthcare system?
FJC: It's happening somewhat organically through a shift of people who used to seek healthcare in the public setting moving to private models because they're not receiving treatment in the public system. We're seeing these private models evolve. Doctor Simi has around 9,000 units that include not only pharmacies but also physicians for prescribing, and they have the data. Just imagine how many patients they're seeing across the country.
Salud Digna represents the same case, along with Mas Salud and many others. There's significant data being collected if we consider all these players. I wish this would come top-down as national policy, but it's evolving bottom-up organically. At some point, I hope a national authority will pick this up, shape it, and bring all relevant actors together to work collaboratively.
EF: What does the pharmaceutical company of the future look like in Mexico, and what capabilities will it need?
FJC: Several trends are shaping this landscape: a more complex payer environment, continued digital engagement with physicians and patients, growing importance of real-world evidence for reimbursement decisions, and companies moving their portfolios toward niche populations and rare diseases.
The company of the future needs to become more agile and linear, organizations that can easily adapt to market needs. You must develop new capabilities for the digital environment: engaging physicians digitally while bridging the gap between old-school doctors and the new generation who are more open to digital engagement and innovative treatments.
There's a huge opportunity to help patient groups develop capabilities to mobilize, give them a voice, and engage effectively. For real-world evidence, companies want to bring more clinical trials to Mexico — I'm talking phase four, not phase three. Pre-clinical would be great, but that is a different conversation. These capabilities require galvanizing cultural change as organizations evolve into new business models, which have underlying talent implications.
In Latin America, rare diseases and high-value therapies are challenging to introduce due to financing issues. The latest studies show that it can take up to 67 months for an innovative therapy to achieve access after regulatory approval by global agencies. When you think about niche populations and rare diseases, Latin America offers amazing opportunities because of underserved populations, but you must work with authorities so these therapies can reach the countries that need them.
EF: How should pharmaceutical companies balance global resource allocation with local market needs in emerging markets like Mexico?
FJC: From a strategic headquarters perspective, you have to make trade-offs on where to allocate resources and investments. You have Africa, Asia, and emerging markets worldwide, which many companies now call international organizations, because they're prioritizing established markets like the US, some European countries, and parts of Asia, with the rest being 'the rest of the world.'
From a general manager's perspective in-country, you want to secure some of that investment. But it's challenging when you have to share with headquarters that it will take 60+ months to gain market approval, then navigate listing and system fragmentation. You might not be the flavor of the week for the person writing the checks.
This comes down to working together with authorities to build the right ecosystems, help them be more resilient and fiscally sustainable, so our countries remain attractive despite population size advantages. These are commercial organizations that must deliver performance. All these factors are part of the same equation, making it more relevant that Latin America takes necessary steps to position the region as a global opportunity.
EF: What's your outlook for Mexico and Latin America in the pharmaceutical industry?
FJC: I continue to see Mexico and the region as a land of opportunity. The investment indicators coming into Mexico show positive numbers, and when you talk to CEOs across different industries, not only pharma, but infrastructure, manufacturing, and sectors where Mexico wasn't previously a reference, you sense optimism about investing and embedding in Mexico despite challenges that need sorting out.
I am convinced that, at least for the next five to ten years, Latin America will continue being a large contributor to business growth for pharmaceutical companies. That is in relative values, because in absolute figures, the largest share will continue coming from the US. When you look at the outlook, Brazil shows double-digit pharma market growth numbers; Argentina and Mexico show the same trend.
The opportunity exists for our region to capture more investment and go beyond business to make a real difference for patients. Rare diseases are starting to gain relevance, but there's significant awareness work needed among decision makers, patient groups, and physician communities. As science evolves and amazing therapies deliver incredible results for patients, there's substantial work ahead. Capturing the business opportunity is great, but doing it for the right reasons, for patients and populations that need these therapies, is when it all comes together.
I'm excited about what the next few years will bring in terms of technology and science advancements for industries across the board. It will be very dynamic with constant change, but the velocity of change we're seeing in science making it to market, and organizations coping with this new reality, is truly remarkable, and I believe it is truly exciting to be witnessing and playing a part in this historical breaking point.
