Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Bruno’s reflections on regulatory evolution: Government collaboration with the private sector is accelerating technology adoption through clearer regulations and tools for companies to work together.
- Medikit as a financial facilitator: Starting about a year ago, the company expanded beyond prescription services by securing a 500 million pesos (U$ 28M) credit line to streamline pharmacy and laboratory contracts across Mexico.
- Connecting the ecosystem at scale: Medikit now links clients to several points of sale through a single contract, integrating health and financial services in one platform.
- Driving hospital collaboration: Partnerships with hospital consortia are creating real-time information sharing networks, enabling better organizational decision-making and more coordinated care.
- Looking ahead, M&A and digital transformation: Bruno sees the next phase dominated by mergers and acquisitions, as large companies leverage health tech speed to accelerate digitalization, while organizational change typically requires at least a year of process adaptation.
EF: Looking over the past decade, what do you think are the two biggest achievements of the life science ecosystem? And looking ahead to the next four years as we reach 2030, what should the sector focus on?
BV: We’ve gone through the pandemic and significant disruption, but I believe the government is now beginning to work more closely with the private sector. That emerging collaboration should be a key focus in the coming years. One reason we’ve been slow to adopt technology and collaborate across companies is the absence of clear regulation and common rules. Many stakeholders are ready to work together, but they haven’t had the right tools. Thanks to recent regulatory changes, those tools are finally becoming available. This is what we should concentrate on over the next few years, as it will accelerate how companies work together and use technology.
EF: What role does Medikit want to play in the sector today?
BV: We created the interoperability market in Mexico 10 years ago, when almost no one else was doing it. Our focus remains the same: interoperability, with the prescription at the center of our work. What has evolved is how that prescription responds to our clients’ needs. A key gap was the lack of a simple way to establish agreements with pharmacies and laboratories across the country. To achieve national coverage, companies had to sign many separate contracts. About a year ago, we decided to solve that. We secured a 500 million peso credit line and began offering a service that combines health and financial infrastructure. Today, a company that wants to work with all these pharmacies only needs one contract with Medikit. Through that single agreement, prescriptions can be fulfilled in around 12,000 points of sale, with one invoice and one payment to us. We then distribute the funds to each participating company. In a market where health and financial services were traditionally separate, we are now integrating them into a single system, and it has been a very interesting journey.
We see ourselves as a neutral partner in this ecosystem. We don’t choose providers. That is entirely up to our clients. Our role is to facilitate communication and manage the relationship. We also don’t set prices. The price offered by the pharmacy is exactly the price we show to the market. In that sense, we are a platform that connects stakeholders and enables interoperability. We are an interoperability platform.
EF: How are your partners and clients adapting to this new model? How are they adapting to this new environment, and how do you adapt to their different needs?
BV: When our technical team meets with a client’s team, it typically takes about a week to understand their processes and define what needs to be done. The real challenge lies on the business side. We often work with clients for at least a year to support the internal changes they need to make. How they communicate with their points of sale, how they organize themselves, and, in some cases, how they adjust internal regulations and policies. That is the most demanding aspect. The technology itself is mature and easy to use.
Over the last decade, we have received very positive feedback from our clients. We are seeing a much more mature market, with organizations more willing to work with digital tools. This is also why we are expanding our services. We began with prescriptions and now also work with laboratories and hospitals. In the past year, we added 58 hospitals, including collaborations with groups such as the Consorcio Mexicano de Hospitales. The market is increasingly ready to adopt digital tools and collaborate more closely across the healthcare ecosystem.
EF: From your point of view, how do you assess the role of data from a hospital perspective?
BV: We developed an interoperability service for the Consorcio Mexicano de Hospitales. Previously, each hospital could see only its own information, so decisions were made in isolation, and the consortium lacked a unified view. Our service now allows hospitals to share information in real time, including prescriptions, services, and purchasing from suppliers. Many hospitals are already connected and contributing data. As a result, the organization has a much clearer, consolidated perspective and a more direct way to make collective decisions. We see this as a pivotal project for the consortium and a potential model for the wider hospital ecosystem. If we can build a network where organizations share selected information while preserving confidentiality, we could reshape the ecosystem over the next three to five years.
EF: In an environment where innovation requires resources, how can we demonstrate that investing in innovation will ultimately save money, even when there is an upfront cost that needs to be justified?
BV: This is also very relevant in the Mexican healthcare ecosystem. In the project I mentioned, hospitals did not pay for the implementation. Normally, you would expect companies to ask hospitals or clients to cover the cost of the technology. However, organizations like AMIIF, which are keen to improve information about the ecosystem, stepped in as sponsors. This enabled us to build a collaborative network across different organizations that allows hospitals to adopt technology without directly affecting the patient, the doctor, the client, or the hospital’s own finances. This support is one of the main reasons many hospitals are now moving toward technology. They can implement it with the backing of organizations that help them generate clear benefits.
EF: Where do you see the biggest opportunity with the advances of technology, AI, and all these developments? How should we adapt, and where do you see the biggest challenges and opportunities?
BV: Mergers and acquisitions. Companies with large patient bases and strong market positions now need the speed and agility of health-tech firms to meet their digitalization goals and expand their presence. We will likely see many more of these deals in the coming years. Large players will need to look closely at digital health companies if they want to adapt to a new generation of users in Mexico, especially in healthcare. Recent regulatory changes will also make these transactions easier, so mergers and acquisitions will be a key trend to watch in the years ahead.
EF: Imagine you were starting a company today, in 2026, in the Mexican life science ecosystem. What kind of company would you build? What do you think the Mexican healthcare market needs most right now?
BV: I often have this conversation with my fellow entrepreneurs. Most chose fintech services and have done very well, as money is always an attractive investment. I was the one who decided to go into healthcare.
Over the years, I’ve seen more partners fail than I would have liked. Even so, healthcare is a noble, steadily growing market. If you build a strong product and give it time to mature, it can succeed. I see promising opportunities in focused, niche products that can work in the Mexican market.
If I were to start something new, I would tackle the insurance challenge in Mexico. Only about 10 percent of Mexicans have private insurance. The remaining 90 depend on the public system. I would build something that improves access to care for those relying on public services. It sounds simple, but it is an intricate problem. Many have tried to solve it, and it remains one of the biggest opportunities in the market.
EF: You will be celebrating 10 years of the company next year. When you raise your glass, what will you be celebrating?
BV: We are very proud of what we have built at Medikit over the last 10 years. One of our key achievements has been keeping the company small; our headcount has remained lean. When people look at the company, especially potential investors or buyers, they are often surprised by how few people run this operation across the country.
Next year, we want to continue expanding our services, particularly in financial services, while avoiding the mistake of growing the team simply for the sake of size. If we can achieve that by the 10‑year mark, it will be a fitting moment to look back at how we built this ecosystem.
