We must remember that as part of the private sector, we are in a privileged position. However, we cannot remain enclosed in our bubble as most women do not enjoy even the basic rights in their labor contract. Mexico remain one of the countries with the largest wage disparity and the least support toward working mothers. Managerial positions are hardly occupied by women and most beneficiaries of loans for investment are still men. We cannot live in a country that does not respect the talent and power of the female population. As women, we must prepare and know our rights when signing a contract and companies have the obligation to grant us this benefit. The biggest impact we could generate in the short term comes from union and sorority, through support among and toward women in the private sector. We must listen and be heard among our colleagues without judgement, teach and learn, which will not only help us as individuals but as a group. We must ditch the belief that women generate conflict among themselves and start creating the mindset that women also build strong and talented teams.

We need to end the so-called “community violence” (individual or collective acts that violate women’s fundamental rights and promote denigration, discrimination, margination and exclusion in the public sphere). This is hard work and much needs to be done. To reach our objective, we need integral and effective prevention policies that incorporate gender perspective in the enforcement of justice (from the social and historic context we grew and live in, to the way in which the female body is presented and perceived). Our current social context questions the very idea of public spaces and the notion that they offer a place for each of us. Inequality between men and women are the bedrock of social order, which is why violence against women in public spaces translates into uneven relationships of power between genders. We need to create a new social order.

There are few API manufacturers in Mexico. As a result, we hold strong ground in Mexico. The quality of a medication relies entirely on the quality of the API. Developing an API requires significantly more investment in R&D than in manufacturing of the finished product. We invest heavily in R&D and we often begin planning them over 10 years before they go off patent. This helps us to offer products to clients at a much more advanced or early stage of product development. We see the biggest competition coming from Asian companies that offer their products at a low price, but they lack great services and speed to reach the market. Hetero has a 500ha chemical complex in Vizag, India that manufactures 24/7, which allows us to offer a high volume of high-quality products at affordable costs.

We are still betting on technology and the development of new solutions to improve our sales force. Our customer relationship management solution, called OCE, gives us greater control of our promotional strategy with clients and stakeholders through an omnichannel platform and helps us achieve close data integration within the different areas of the company. Big Data is a key element in our solution. This provides results based on solid analysis of the information we offer to clients and that we receive as feedback from them. From this, we can then execute appropriate business strategies. 

Rather than a lack of specialists, I think doctors are badly distributed. On average, there are two to three doctors per 1,000 inhabitants. However, in cases like Mexico City, the concentration of doctors can be three times higher than in other regions. This disparity should be addressed not only by universities but also through the National Health System. Around 8,000 doctors graduate from a specialty in Mexico every year but the available university placements are determined based on hospitals’ vacancies instead of the actual needs of the national population. Ideally, the government should have a way of organizing the country’s local and national health needs to have a clear idea of how many doctors and specialists are required by state, which would make it easier to distribute them.

Our infrastructure covers the needs of 85 percent of the population in the regions where we operate. We have made sure to be only 10 minutes away from our clients’ homes. Walmex receives over 5 million clients per day, which provides a great opportunity to increase access to health. Our strategy for the healthcare sector follows five pillars: growth, omnichannel, productivity, agility and people’s culture. We are constantly innovating to open new sales channels for our clients and to develop end-to-end strategies that ensure that the product is available as fast as possible. All our decisions are focused on the patient. For us, speaking about health means speaking about well-being, so we treat these topics together. We want our patients to perceive us as experts in our field so they can trust us.

Several factors impact the local healthcare environment. Changes have been made to public tenders of pharmaceuticals, imposing new requirements that do not encompass the health and the pharmaceutical industry systems in Mexico. For instance, the Mexican government now forces participants to have marketing authorization, which means only the manufacturer and not the licensee or distributor may participate in the public tender. Most manufacturing companies do not have the infrastructure to participate in the tenders themselves, causing shortages and uncertainty in tender processes. There is also a fear that players from countries with no free trade agreement with Mexico will enter the bidding process with products that may not fulfill regulatory standards. The public and private sector must work together for tenders to run smoothly and to ensure universal coverage.

It is very important to solve problems related to security and rule of law. The National Anticorruption System needs to start working and we need to have an Anticorruption Prosecutor. This would also allow us to reduce the country cost. Corruption costs us at least 1 percent of the country’s GDP. However, there are studies that put the cost of corruption between 1 and 10 percent of the GDP. As this is a key topic for President López Obrador, we would like to see the rapid functioning of the National Anticorruption System and specific measures from the federal government to address this issue.