Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Positioning as a partner of choice for global pharma: As multinationals reassess their presence in markets like Mexico, Stendhal is capturing partnership opportunities, strengthening its role as a trusted regional player.
- Strong growth momentum backed by execution: The company delivered double-digit growth and expects 35% growth in 2026.
- Leveraging market shifts to expand: Industry challenges, including market contraction and strategic repositioning by global players, are creating openings that Stendhal is actively capitalizing on.
- Private market focus for sustainable growth: The company prioritizes private sector performance, where growth reflects real demand and is driven by commercial execution, salesforce productivity, and marketing effectiveness.
- Talent and capabilities as growth enablers: Scaling the organization requires continuous reassessment of leadership and capabilities, ensuring the right balance between people, processes, and systems to sustain rapid expansion.
EF: What two key areas should the LifeSciences sector prioritize over the next four years as we approach 2030?
RR: It is crucial to present a clear and coherent value proposition to the government so patients can fully access care. Today, the sector is highly fragmented, which is a major challenge in Mexico. We strive to bring innovation to patients, yet we also focus on protecting patents on older products without fully considering that government budgets are limited and under pressure. It is therefore up to us as an industry to create space in the federal budget for innovation. Decisions are often driven by budget constraints and sales targets. This is not a sustainable model for the pharmaceutical industry in Mexico. While safeguarding innovation is essential, we must also allow room for generics and biosimilars once patents expire. Mexico’s adoption of biosimilars still has significant room to develop, most of which is concerning from a broader health system perspective. We need to adopt a more proactive stance and work with the government on clear, long-term strategies.
Looking ahead to the next four years, the real question is whether the industry will lead or merely react. Being proactive means leveraging our organizations, and above all, coming together to present a unified value proposition as a sector. We should all be working towards improving patient access, whether through innovative therapies, generics, or biosimilars. We need a shared vision and stronger coordination across the sector to move forward effectively.
EF: Do you view multinational companies reassessing their market presence as a challenge or an opportunity?
RR: Most companies are reassessing their go-to-market strategies in markets such as Mexico and Colombia. This is a concern because after Brazil, these have historically been among the most important markets in the region. At the same time, these challenges are creating space for companies like Stendhal. As multinationals rethink their presence, we are seeing strong interest from major players seeking partnerships with us. From a ‘national’ standpoint, the market’s decline is disappointing; from a business standpoint, it opens meaningful growth opportunities.
Last year we delivered double-digit growth, and in 2026 we expect to grow by around 35%. This does not yet factor in additional growth opportunities we are currently exploring. Every challenge brings an opportunity. Today’s conditions are generating major openings for Stendhal, and we are moving decisively to capture as many of them as possible.
EF: What mindset and approach are required to effectively manage rapid growth while balancing opportunities and available resources?
RR: It is important to distinguish where growth is truly coming from. On one hand, there is government-driven growth, which can at times be ‘misleading’. In some cases, tender dynamics can distort true demand signals and create inefficiencies in supply planning. As a sector, we should focus on supplying only what patients will actually use; otherwise, we risk excess inventory and even secondary markets.
On the other hand, growth in the private sector is more reliable because it reflects real performance. It depends on the productivity of the sales force and the effectiveness of marketing strategies, and that is where I place most of my focus. Managing this growth ultimately comes down to having the right people in the right roles. We have a strong leadership team, and we continue to strengthen our capabilities at the pace required by the business, especially amid rapid changes such as AI. I continuously challenge the team and assess the talent needed in key positions to ensure we have the capabilities needed for both the short term and the next two to three years. In the end, success depends on finding the right balance between people, processes, and systems, and that is the path we will continue to follow.
EF: How do you, as a leader, evaluate and manage the integration of new technologies within your organization and teams?
RR: We evaluate new technologies based on whether they improve decision quality, speed, and execution discipline across the organization, particularly in areas such as business intelligence, commercial productivity, and partnership prioritization. One of Stendhal’s key strengths is our business development team and what I would describe as a very robust pipeline. We monitor the market daily through our business intelligence capabilities, identifying new molecules and breakthrough products as soon as they appear. A structured process allows us to quickly spot potential blockbusters, especially from startups and biotech companies that do not yet have a presence in Latin America, and to approach them early with a clear value proposition. In some cases, we compete with large global players to secure partnerships. Depending on their regional strategy, partners may grant us rights for specific countries, such as Mexico, while assigning other markets to different companies, or they may seek a single partner across Latin America versus the strongest local partner in each country.
Our value lies in being a trusted partner that understands the region and can reliably bring these therapies to market. We have built strong collaborations with companies such as Vertex, BioMarin, Biogen, and Alnylam, particularly in Mexico and Central America. In Central America, Stendhal has become a leading player in orphan drugs, with a significant portfolio in this category. We are proud to be regarded as a reference partner for rare disease portfolios in the region, and we continue to expand our portfolio to bring more innovative therapies to patients.
EF: What are the key factors for successfully improving access to orphan drugs, particularly considering their specialized nature and high cost?
RR: The key is to first understand that every country is different. Although Central America and the Andean region are often treated as a single market, it is in fact composed of more than ten distinct markets, each with its own laws, regulations, and dynamics. The starting point is therefore a deep understanding of each country’s legal framework and market conditions.
The second essential factor is mapping the full patient journey. At Stendhal, we have developed a detailed view of this process. From the work of medical teams to the role of case specialists, who bridge the gap between medical support and patient access, through to final product delivery. This makes us particularly effective at navigating the entire pathway. We have also invested significantly in the resources and capabilities required to support this model. Thanks to the breadth and strength of our portfolio, we can deploy larger, more specialized teams and stronger infrastructure than many pharmaceutical companies in the region. This scale and depth of presence give us a clear competitive edge and make our business model in Central America especially robust and effective.
EF: What skills, talents, and cultural attributes are essential for building the workforce of the future?
RR: For me, the workforce of the future is defined by adaptability, learning agility, resilience, and the ability to operate effectively in fast-changing environments. In the end, it comes down to mindset. To succeed, companies must shape their portfolios around the specific needs and realities of each market. If, for example, a company focuses on high-cost treatments for rare diseases while public healthcare budgets are shrinking, its strategy will be misaligned from the start. Both the portfolio and the business development strategy must be grounded in the conditions of each market.
This is how we operate at Stendhal. Our strategy in Central America is very different from our approach in Mexico. If we insisted on promoting only highly innovative and expensive products in Mexico, we would not be competitive in the coming years. Flexibility is essential. Needs, regulations, and market dynamics vary by country and can change quickly. What works in one market may not work in another, so companies must be able to adjust course on short notice.
Ultimately, success depends on adaptability, resilience, and a genuine commitment to continuous learning. I value people who stay curious and are willing to learn something new every day. Those who believe they already know everything will struggle, because in a constantly changing environment, today’s knowledge can become outdated very quickly.
EF: As you approach your 10-year anniversary, what key achievement or milestone would you most like to celebrate?
RR: Over the past ten years, Stendhal has grown rapidly. We have gone from working with just three partners to 27 and built a far more diversified portfolio. Where Mexico once represented about 90 percent of our revenue, today our business is much more balanced, with roughly half coming from Mexico and half from the rest of the region.
There is much to celebrate, but what matters most is that we have expanded patient access to a broad range of treatments. I am particularly proud that we now represent a number of leading pharmaceutical companies. This reflects our values, our high compliance standards, and the way we do business, which together have helped us build a strong reputation. In the past, we were the ones approaching companies to bring innovative products into our markets. Now, companies come to us. That shift speaks to the strength of what we have built and the trust we have earned over time.
