Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Government tender systems are returning to proven frameworks, restoring market confidence for national pharmaceutical companies.
- Private sector flexibility has enabled pharmacy chains and independent pharmacies to fill critical healthcare gaps left by institutional coverage limitations.
- Universal healthcare remains an achievable goal for Mexico, building on the successful Seguro Popular framework that was discontinued prematurely.
- Manufacturing capacity expansions of 30-60% in key therapeutic areas reflect growing demand and market opportunities in injectables and specialized antibiotics.
- White-label partnerships with major pharmacy chains represent a strategic shift toward diversified revenue streams beyond traditional government tenders.
- International interest in Mexico's pharmaceutical market is driving potential joint ventures and partnerships as companies seek local expertise for market entry.
EF: Looking back over the past decade in Mexico's life sciences ecosystem, what would you identify as the two key achievements? And what should the sector focus on as we approach 2030?
JJAS: The tender system in Mexico had been improving for years, and it was a great achievement once it was digitalized, and we are glad to be returning to the framework from years ago. This year, things are starting to be clearer, and the market is settling down. Giving certainty to the tender market again is crucial because the government market is very important for all national companies.
The second achievement has been increased flexibility with the private market, particularly with independent pharmacies and pharmacy chains. We had a period where thousands of pharmacies were closing each year. The institutions couldn't make up for all these closures, so we had a huge gap between the need for medical services and what could be provided. During the last 12 to 18 months, we have seen the pharmacy ecosystem grow, always within the law, allowing for the private sector to make up for the lack of institutional coverage. People still need services for small ailments without spending a whole day in institutions or paying high costs at big private facilities. These small walk-in, walk-out pharmacies cover a big sector of the population who just want to get their prescription and medicine quickly.
Looking toward the future, the president's announcement of universal healthcare is something we all want, though it will be challenging to achieve. Patients will have to weigh the benefits and costs. You might have universal healthcare, but it could take time and require going to saturated institutions. The option to pay for your own consultations and medicines will always be valuable. There are many details to work out, but this should be a big goal through 2030. The government had a good framework to start with from Seguro Popular, which was a good starting point, working toward universal healthcare.
EF: How is Grupo Bruluart structured today in terms of distribution, manufacturing, and pharmacy operations?
JJAS: We're trying to have a bigger role as a manufacturer and partner to the big pharmacy chains. In the past, we focused on independent chains and smaller regional chains, but now we've shifted to really focus on big nationwide pharmacy chains. They're much more open to receiving national products, and even our branded generics are welcome. Our big opportunity is their own brands. We're just starting our white-label division, going to pharmacies and offering them their own brands. This will be a big factor for our manufacturing business going forward, as we assess any uncertainty around government tenders. White-label and proprietary brands of generics for each national pharmacy chain will definitely be a big market for us. We have the manufacturing power and installed capacity, so we have to use it somewhere, and this looks like a very good option.
EF: What does your current manufacturing portfolio look like, and how is your business distributed across different therapeutic areas?
JJAS: Our main therapeutic areas are still the cephalosporin antibiotics. Our treatment for bacterial infections is one of our biggest sellers. We're just finishing a big improvement in our injectables area, where we hope to increase our capacity close to 30-40% in production, and in our general injectables, we're opening two more production lines where we'll probably increase our capacity close to 60%. We're focusing on these two areas where we think there are more opportunities, because these are very delicate areas, and they require experience to work them properly. We're probably one of the top five players both in general injectables and in our antibiotic treatment. With those two areas, we can really be big players. The rest of our portfolio includes general generics like omeprazole, diclofenac, and paracetamol, which we'll focus on for white label.
EF: With 30% growth in one area and 60% growth in injectables, how do you manage this significant capacity expansion?
JJAS: It's all about bringing new equipment. We're bringing two new filling production lines and three completely new areas. We've been building them from the ground up, which represents a big increase in the physical size of our areas. The whole project has been going on for the last 14 months, and we're just finishing up. We have the regulatory visit probably in these weeks, and once they approve, it's like a green light, and we can start manufacturing. It was literally a physical increase, bringing new machines, new filling machines, building a whole new area in the manufacturing facility, and setting it up. We have a big portfolio, which we couldn't really produce the last couple of years because our capacity in these areas was filled up with our top sellers. We have our vitamin B12 in all its presentations, taking up the capacity, and although it’s a good problem to have, that stopped us from producing about six other products in our portfolio. With this increase in capacity, we'll have the full portfolio of injectables again. The same with our antibiotic treatment, whatever we produced was all sold. With this increase in capacity, we're also going to have two other products which we can put back in the market because these were increasing in popularity, but we could never fill the orders because we were always producing our main products. This will give us the chance to increase our portfolio and relaunch products that we already had, which were well placed in the market, but which we just haven't been able to meet demand for in the last couple of years.
EF: How do you build your team to support this growth, especially in a rapidly evolving market?
JJAS: We've been very lucky because we have a big pipeline of homegrown talent. We've been investing quite a lot in helping our own people study, go abroad, and really increase their knowledge and capacities. Most of the management positions have been filled from within. We have been looking outward for a couple of positions, especially on the commercial side, because we want to expand to these new markets of national pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics. There we're looking for people outside our business because these are completely new markets which we've never been in. But for all the production capacity and laboratories, it's pretty much homegrown talent. We just try to invest in education and skill sets. We have people who have been with us for over 15 years, 20 years. Maybe they started on a filling machine, and now they're area managers and sub-directors, production managers. They know absolutely everything within the production facilities.
EF: Looking ahead five years, where do you see the biggest opportunities for Grupo Bruluart?
JJAS: Most of the opportunities are really going to come from the retail sector. We've increased our portfolio with the over-the-counter market. We used to have just three products, and all the rest were prescription drugs or generics. This allows us to go to so many other outlets, not just pharmacies. The private sector is what really gets us excited, because we're going to look to go to supermarket chains, convenience stores, all kinds of stores. They're going to be looking for typical solutions like headache products, toothache products, and menstrual pain products. All these over-the-counter medicines, we think we have really good products where we can attack these opportunities. With this new portfolio, we can really attack these opportunities. We're always going to have a strong presence in the government sector, but I think that's just a driver for our private market products.
EF: What's your current ratio of private versus public sector focus, and how do you see this evolving?
JJAS: Right now, in terms of resources, we're probably 60-40 toward the private sector, but our sales are 60-40 in n terms of units toward the public sector. We want to really flip that. We're looking to flip that to be much more aggressive in the private sector.
EF: As we wrap up, what's your outlook for the Mexican pharmaceutical market and any final thoughts on where the industry is heading?
JJAS: 2024 was a very challenging year for the whole market. We saw very little growth. The market was full of products, and very little demand, which impacted our prices and margins. In the last quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, things started to switch and look better. The outlook right now is much more optimistic. With the new change of perspective in government, there is a lot more interest in the Mexican market from transnational companies, both pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacy chains. We're feeling that there's a lot more interest from international players. We're definitely going to be looking into maybe joint ventures, opportunities to grow both with an international player coming into Mexico, and maybe ourselves looking for a joint venture somewhere outside. The market looks very ripe for companies in other countries, and they really want to tap in, but it's very hard to get in. They all want to do it with the hand of a local company. It's very exciting and very changing. We'll see some big changes in the coming years, probably changes we haven't seen in quite a long time.
