Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Innovation Ecosystem Evolution: Over the past decade, INCIDE has promoted early-stage innovation, linking academia, government, and industry under the triple helix model. Key shifts include changes in government agencies, pandemic challenges, and evolving intellectual property laws.
- Current Priorities: The organization is focused on rebuilding ties with the government under President Sheinbaum’s administration, integrating industry in policy and research collaborations, and enhancing support for tech transfer, regulatory affairs, and project scaling.
- Investment Landscape: Healthcare innovation investment in Mexico is early-stage, with underdeveloped venture capital and cultural barriers to collaboration. Transparency, fiscal incentives, and early regulatory engagement are critical needs.
- Challenges and Opportunities: Researchers face institutional limits on entrepreneurship and intellectual property. However, Mexico’s low investment entry barriers, growing infrastructure, and scientific talent provide significant potential.
- Strategic Outlook: INCIDE aims to advance innovation by fostering partnerships, co-development, and ecosystem coordination, addressing the entire innovation cycle from early identification to acceleration and funding.
EF: In the last 10 years of INCIDE, how would you describe the evolution of the innovation ecosystem in Mexico’s life sciences scene?
DO: INCIDE was founded in 2013 by Antonio López de Silanes. His main concern was that there was no outlet within the chambers or associations focused mainly on innovation. In Canifarma, for example, there is a research and development committee, but the focus is usually more on regulation and current issues. International companies are very concerned about getting their protocols approved in Mexico through reliance mechanisms and conducting parts of their global studies here.
But for us in INCIDE, we are local firms. INCIDE is composed of the eight main local Mexican pharmaceutical companies. Our main concern is how to integrate the innovation ecosystem because we are looking to make innovation here in the country, joining forces with academia and the government under the triple helix model, and coming up with solutions for everyday problems that patients might face.
We identified the need for a dedicated space to address early-stage innovation and to strengthen the relationship between academic research and industry. INCIDE emerged as that space: a neutral forum where companies can work together, even when they are direct competitors in the marketplace. Here, the emphasis is on cooperation and collaboration, with a shared commitment to advancing key drivers of innovation, such as incentives and infrastructure. In the past decade, substantial changes, including government administration, have reshaped the approach. CONACyT was dissolved and replaced by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Humanities.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of strengthening local research and development capacities. The discussion extended beyond production. We debated not only about our capacity to manufacture vaccines, but also about broader collaboration. The Foreign Affairs Ministry created a group, and one of the main obstacles we confronted was identifying sites to test vaccine candidates in a country without BSL-3 laboratories to test real viruses in people or live animals. We required that kind of infrastructure, as well as certain equipment, to determine the sequences of proposed vaccines and related work.
The landscape has shifted beyond the administrative side. The Federal Law for Science and Technology has been reconstituted as the Science, Technology, and Humanities Law, accompanied by substantial changes in the intellectual property framework.
There has also been a notable change in mindset among researchers in academia, who are now starting to think about creating their own ventures, launching start-ups, and founding companies based on their research projects. The innovation gears are starting to move, but there is still a long way to go.
EF: What is currently at the top of your agenda as president of INCIDE? After looking back at the past 10 years, what are the key priorities and goals you see ahead for the organization?
DO: Our primary priority is rebuilding relationships with government institutions, regulatory authorities, and key public stakeholders. The administration of President Sheinbaum brings a different mindset. Her scientific background is reflected in the orientation of both the Health Ministry and the Science Ministry, which now falls under her leadership.
Under the previous administration, meaningful dialogue between industry and government was missing. Public policy focused a lot on academia but overlooked the third player in the triple helix, which is industry. The current administration is working to integrate it.
In this context, our main focus is on rebuilding and strengthening those relationships. For example, we are in the process of closing a collaboration agreement with SECIHTI, which is investing in research projects across academic and research institutions in Mexico. By being involved in the early stages, we can identify projects that could later be transferred to industry, supporting them with funding or regulatory expertise.
We also aim to provide consultancy on tech transfer, validation, and scaling up, helping projects progress faster.
EF: At present, where do you see the biggest opportunities: in monitoring, identifying, financing, or accelerating?
DO: We want to focus primarily on acceleration. On the financing side, we are setting up a private fund within INCIDE. There is currently no specialized fund for healthcare in Mexico. While there are many venture capital funds, we want to concentrate specifically on healthcare and act not only as financial investors, but also as technological investors and potential co-development partners.
This is what we believe will differentiate us. Acceleration is particularly important because we know that in Mexico, many technologies are at a TRL of 3 to 4. We aim to move them to TRL 5 or 6 so other investors can come in. Right now, INCIDE is focused on identifying technologies, accelerating them, and then funding them. To this end, we are running a program called INCIDE Booster.
Last January, we held our second edition. Before the pandemic, we held two expos where innovators could showcase their projects. After the pandemic, we paused that format, and now this is our second Booster edition.
We issue an open call for projects for companies to present what they are working on, then we select the most promising ones. Over two months, we provide a series of training sessions on regulatory affairs, intellectual property, validation, scaling, tech transfer, finances, and more, to help them structure their innovations. The pitch is very important because many researchers and entrepreneurs have great ideas, but do not always know how to present them or convince third parties. We want to help them structure their ideas so they can later seek funding.
EF: How would you rate the level of awareness and appetite for investment at the seed level for healthcare companies within Mexico?
DO: Investments in healthcare are high risk because of long time horizons, large capital requirements, and technological complexity. Mexico is still in the early stages of building a solid investment framework.
In contrast to more mature ecosystems abroad, Mexico lacks specialized firms focused solely on healthcare. This is linked to a business culture where many companies are family‑owned and prefer to work independently rather than collaborate. Yet innovation requires an open‑innovation mindset, as it demands significant capital, time, and shared effort.
Partnerships are essential because no single organization has all the capabilities or resources needed for every stage of development. Many strong ideas in Mexico remain in laboratories or academia, limited by institutional regulations and uncertainty over intellectual property.
Some institutions restrict their researchers from holding a second job or creating companies, viewing it as a conflict of interest. Intellectual property rules are also unclear, unlike other countries where researchers can access public funding, create spin‑offs, file patents, and retain ownership of their ideas.
Culturally, there has also been resistance to profiting from science, seeing it as something to be done purely for its own sake. This is beginning to change as researchers recognize that building companies can be the most practical way to obtain resources and move projects forward more efficiently than through slow institutional channels.
Mexico must recognize that it competes globally to offer attractive conditions for investment, whether innovation originates abroad or domestically. Fiscal incentives similar to those in other countries and a clearer regulatory framework are needed. Early dialogue with authorities and clear guidelines would avoid costly rework and give projects a more predictable path.
For innovation to be viable, there should also be some assurance that, when a project addresses a high‑priority national health problem, the government can act as a buyer. Knowing there is a potential purchaser at the end of a long and expensive process would transform the innovation landscape.
Mexico offers strong potential for healthcare investment: entry costs are relatively low, and there is considerable technical and scientific expertise. Rather than being passive investors, it is important to partner with local players and institutions to jointly develop projects and mature technologies.
Although capital is necessary for the ecosystem to function, even modest investments can have a significant impact in Mexico. At the same time, new infrastructure is being built to attract international innovators to conduct activities such as pilot batches in the country, supported by cost advantages, time‑zone alignment, and solid technological capabilities.
Overall, there are two main types of opportunities: investing in innovation created in Mexico and investing in the infrastructure that receives and scales innovation from abroad.
EF: Do you have a final message?
DO: INCIDE is a group of very strong players in the Mexican market and across Latin America, willing to invest in innovation and to partner up. Not only for licensing products, but also for co-developing and maturing technologies. We know there are challenges within the Mexican framework, but we are working to improve things because we want that change and are working to make it happen.
