LatinPharma Helps Small Firms Compete

A niche in the market

Small firms in the pharmaceutical sector are often well placed to satisfy demand for generic drugs, an area not always of interest to large suppliers of research-based products. However, for small firms to stand their ground they have to be efficient. They need to adopt the same competitiveness strategy as the large companies: economies of scale. As these aren't often found at the national level, firms need to look regionally for strategic alliances. ITC is helping small pharmaceutical firms and those in related sectors to find partners, through programmes such as LatinPharma.

Matching firms

The LatinPharma programme is creating links between companies in the sector, across national borders. It covers straightforward buying and selling arrangements, but also business-to business collaboration for technology transfer, product quality and packaging improvement, and distribution arrangements. Through buyers/sellers meetings, companies start working together and become more competitive.

New opportunities

ITC provides information to the sector about new business opportunities, such as in traditional medicines. Through collaboration with academia and industry experts, insight is provided into new drugs and issues related to intellectual property rights.

ITC at UNCTAD XI

LatinPharma 2004 - 9-12 June. ITC and its partners in Brazil are organizing a LatinPharma event during UNCTAD's Rio Trade Week in Rio de Janeiro. It includes a business matchmaking forum, information sessions with industry experts and a preparatory e-conference. For details, see the web site (http://www.latinpharma.net/expo2004).

For more information, contact Emmanuel Barreto, ITC Trade Promotion Adviser, at barreto@intracen.org