Local Company Aims to Grow With Unique Strategy

Q: Where does Mavi Farmacéutica fit in the Mexican pharmaceutical ecosystem?

A: Mavi Farmacéutica focuses on the sale of low and medium volumes with prices in the medium to high range. In terms of price, pharmaceuticals can be classified in descending order as: patented medicines, branded products with expired patents, branded generics and pure generics. Our niche is branded products and branded generics, which is a comfortable place for us.

Q: How are Mexico’s epidemiological changes influencing your market strategy?

A: We are also focusing on antibiotics and anti-flu medications, two product lines that focus on very common diseases in the country. We also have medicines to control blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides, which are our most profitable products. Taking into account Mexico’s epidemiological challenges, we will continue to focus on products related to diabetes. We hope to introduce six or seven new APIs or combination products for blood sugar and cholesterol management in the next couple of years.

Q: How is Mexico’s pharmaceutical market changing? Where does Mavi Farmacéutica see itself in this evolution?

A: The market for basic pharmaceutical products, including pain killers, anti-inflammatories, antihistamines, antibiotics and many others, has been undergoing a radical change for the past few years as Big Pharma introduces its own generic lines to compete with other brands specialized in generics.

The Mexican market has changed over the past 20 years from patented medicines to generics and branded generics. The medical devices market has also grown significantly in recent years and has become an attractive business opportunity. Today, Mavi Farmacéutica sees a large business opportunity in medical devices.

Q: Which market niches has Mavi Farmacéutica found attractive in the local market?

A: We are focusing on pain-control products for the central nervous system, such as next-generation pain killers. Antibiotics, diabetes control, sexual health, anti-depression and anti-cholesterol products are our main niches.

Q: What are the main benefits that companies obtain when associating with Mavi Farmacéutica?

A: Mavi Farmacéutica has almost 30,000 points of sale in 32 states, including pharmacies, hospitals, medical centers, clinics and self-service stores. Our goal is to reach 20,000 more points of sale. We also attend and give service to over 15,000 doctors.

Q: How do you divide your sales among the public and private sectors?

A: 95 percent of our sales target the private sector and the rest goes to the public sector. This is a healthy percentage for us, although we might consider increasing our sales to the public sector depending on the medical devices we end up importing into Mexico.

We target our products to the private sector because the time period a product is successful in this sector is much longer than in the public market.

Q: How is Mavi Farmacéutica using its strong position in Mexico to expand abroad?

A: At this point, we are selling our products in Costa Rica and Guatemala and we look forward on registering products in Colombia. We are seeking FDA approval to enter the US market, where we will focus on California, Oregon and Washington State. In these states, our margins will be wider and we will be able to offer extremely competitive costs. Medication prices there are between 40 and 80 percent higher than in Mexico.