Sindusfarma inaugurates headquarters and swears in new board of directors

The ceremony was attended by the president of Anvisa, Rômison Mota, who signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement with the organization.

The new Board of Directors of Sindusfarma for the 2025-2027 triennium was officially sworn in last Monday, the 17th, at an event attended by more than 140 pharmaceutical industry executives. The meeting also marked the presentation of the organization's new headquarters and the signing of a technical cooperation agreement with Anvisa.

In addition to the president Rômison MotaThe municipality was represented at the event by directors Daniel Carvalho and Danitza Passamai Rojas Buvinich, deputy director Suzana Yumi Fujimoto and general manager Marcus Aurélio Miranda de Araújo.

Sindusfarma board brings together 12 industry representatives

Sindusfarma's new board brings together 12 executives from Brazilian and multinational laboratories, with the following as president Cleiton de Castro MarquesCEO of Biolab. In his inaugural speech, the businessman highlighted innovation as a natural and desirable path to follow, given the current state of the pharmaceutical industry in the country.

"Brazil needs to stop being just a major exporter of commodities, agricultural and agro-industrial products. The country needs to start formulating strategies that will enable it to occupy a prominent position in the global innovation market, especially in the field of health," he believes. For Marques, this transformation involves encouraging incremental innovation. "But in order for this dynamic to gain traction, we need to resolve an issue that seems unsolvable to me - the pricing of medicines," he says.

Biolab's CEO advocates a broad renewal of the regulatory framework in the pharmaceutical sector. "The pricing of drugs that originate from incremental innovation is a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if we really want to embark on the promising field of health innovation," he says.

Technical cooperation with Anvisa

Marques also stressed the importance of regulatory harmonization and the exchange of documentation and dossiers with other countries. "Anvisa's work has received fair international recognition for initiatives such as the agreement signed by the PIC/S. This agreement allowed our factories in Brazil, inspected and certified by the agency, to be approved by the Canadian drug regulatory authority," he explained.

The upward adjustment of the reference values for the Popular Pharmacy will be another banner raised by Sindusfarma. "We want to talk to the government to strengthen this winning state policy," he concludes.

Duty done

In his farewell speech as president of the Board of Directors, Omilton Visconde JuniorCEO of Cellera Farma, gave a quick assessment of his five years as president of the organization. "Today I close my cycle with a sense of accomplishment. It has been a long period, of five non-consecutive terms, the last one being particularly challenging due to the pandemic and the turbulence that has marked the country's public management in the health area. And the pharmaceutical industry delivered what was expected of it. It saved lives," he recalls.

But, for him, several issues still need to be resolved, such as the relaxation of price controls, the model for incorporating and financing advanced therapies and the effective supervision of the dispensing of prescription medicines.

"It's important to remember that the period of price freedom at the end of the 1990s was decisive in building and consolidating the modern pharmaceutical industrial park that exists in the country today, on a par with the best in the world. Proper regulation would guarantee more investment by the pharmaceutical industry in radical and incremental innovation," he points out.

New headquarters

Founded 92 years ago in the state of São Paulo, Sindusfarma has 610 member companies. They account for more than 95% of the medicines market in the country, employing around 900,000 people directly and indirectly.

Located on the corner of Alvorada and Casa do Ator, in the heart of São Paulo's Vila Olímpia neighborhood, the iconic building was designed to become an architectural landmark. The building mixes several garden floors in contrast to the huge glass buildings of the metropolis.

With seven floors and approximately 3,275 m² of floor space, the building was erected on the same site as the old headquarters, inaugurated in 1981, which was demolished. The modern facilities include an auditorium, meeting rooms, a foyer, administrative areas and a roof. During the work, the organization stayed at a temporary address on Avenida Engenheiro Luís Carlos Berrini, in Brooklin. The permanent move took place at the beginning of January.

"This is a return in terms of services and quality of care for our member companies. We are prepared to meet the present and future demands of the pharmaceutical industry," celebrates the CEO of Cellera, after whom the new building is named.

Composition of the new Board of Directors

Chairman: Cleiton de Castro Marques (Biolab)
1st Vice-President: Amanda Spina (Johnson & Johnson)
2nd Vice-President: Omilton Visconde Jr (Cellera)
3rd Vice-President: Maurizio Billi (Eurofarma)
Director: Alexandre Gibim (Pfizer)
Director: Breno Oliveira (Hypera)
Director: Fernando Sampaio (Sanofi Medley)
Director: Isabella Wanderley (Novo Nordisk)
Director: Lorice Scalise (Roche)
Director: Marcus Sanchez (EMS)
Director: Maria Heloísa Simão (Blanver)
Director: Patrick Eckert (GSK)

Alternates

1st Andrea Sambati (Boehringer Ingelheim)
2nd Eder Fernando Maffissoni (Prati-Donaduzzi)
3rd Eduardo Tutihashi (Abbvie)
4th Fernando Gabriel Itzaina Sanchez (FQM)
5th Fernando de Jesus Vaz Afonso (Vertex)
6th Guilherme Maradei (Natulab)
7th Heraldo Marchezini (Biomm)
8th Jairo Yamamoto (Althaia)
9th José Arnaud (Merck)
10th José Vicente Marino (Aché)
11th Laurena Magnoni (Besins)
12th Roberto Vieira Rocha (Teva)

Effective members of the Audit Board

1st Odilon Costa (Cristália)
2nd Rubens Gimenes Filho (Almeida Prado)
3rd Walker Magalhães Lahmann (Eurofarma)

Alternates

1st Fernando Salles A. Marques (Arese Pharma)
2nd Juliana Megid (EMS)
3rd Magda Giudicissi (Cazi Química)

Executive presidency

Nelson Mussolini