March 26, 2012 High Tech Medicine

Volume 15 | Issue 1

For more than 85 years, Productos Farmacéuticos, S.A. de C.V., best known as CHINOIN, has been delivering high quality medications to Mexico

When it comes to helping people, Productos Farmacéuticos, S.A. de C.V., best known as CHINOIN takes its role seriously. In addition to providing a wide customer base with top quality medications and health products, the Mexico-based company strives to encourage and support its workforce. CHINOIN offers ongoing training programs within the company, and also allows workers to pursue higher levels of education.

This strategy has helped CHINOIN create a knowledgeable workforce that is well-equipped to develop and deliver high quality products. “When visitors come and tour our pharmaceutical plant, they often ask the workers questions,” notes Eric Hagsater, engineer and CEO of the company. “Our employees are always ready to give a detailed explanation about their role.”

CHINOIN is a company that is proud to be Mexican and is dedicated to the development, manufacturing, and selling of high quality medications for both humans and animals. Its products are known for their effectiveness and safety. The company creates medications for various health issues, offering products that treat respiratory, muscular-skeletal, and gastrointestinal conditions, among others. It also develops and distributes a variety of veterinary products.

Headquarters for CHINOIN are located in Mexico City. The company’s main pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is situated in the central state of Aguascalientes. Approximately 800 workers carry out day-to-day operations at CHINOIN.

MORE THAN 85 YEARS IN THE MARKET
Company operations date back to 1925, when CHINOIN, a Mexican-Hungarian company at the time, first entered the Mexican market. In its early days, CHINOIN imported and distributed finished products from Hungary.

Seven years later, the company added a manufacturing plant in Mexico. CHINOIN became a 100 percent owned Mexican company in 1947. At that time, the firm had departments dedicated to the development and manufacturing of products containing its own formulas.

Upon consolidating its presence in the Mexican market, the company directed efforts toward the Latin American landscape, beginning in Guatemala and then moving into all of Central America, parts of South America and the Caribbean.

In 1960, the company started developing, manufacturing, and selling pharmaceutical and biological veterinary products. Its first product line was geared for cattle and pigs.

In 1999, the company installed the SAP R/3 computer electronic system, one of the world’s leading systems for the planning and control of company resources. The goal of this system is to guarantee a strong functioning of all of the operating and administrative process in the company.

CHINOIN’s current manufacturing plant was built between 2000 and present day, incorporating modern production and analysis equipment. The plant is located near the city of Aguascalientes. It covers 20,000 square meters and is on a property that measures 10 hectares.

The company’s pharmaceutical plant has departments to manufacture solids, semi-solids, creams and injectables. It has a closed production system, with bin transfers, and manufactures a variety of pharmaceutical forms, including tablets, caplets, capsules, powders, creams, and suppositories.

For liquids, the company has a fully automated filling line with closing and labeling equipment and a CIP (clean in place) system. For injectables, it has an automated sterile filling system for ampoules and vials, including particle and pinhole inspection equipment to produce solutions and suspensions. For its topical products, it has a closed system for liquid production, creams, and gels. For animal health products, it has a filling line, including filling, closing and label machines, all fully automatic and equipped with a CIP system.

The company’s laboratories are committed to both galenic and analytical development. The facility also contains quality assurance departments, a laboratory specializing in microbiology, administrative offices and a canteen.

QUALITY CONTROLS
CHINOIN has the latest technology, which allows the company to face current and future challenges with strict quality controls. As part of its growth strategy, Hagsater notes the company’s focus on reinvestment. “We want to make sure we have the latest technology available for production and for our products,” he says. “We also want to be able to monitor the quality and safety of those products.”

Because its equipment and systems comply with standards in the pharmaceutical industry, the company has received a number of acknowledgements throughout its years of operations. One of the awards it has received is the “Certificate of Good Manufacturing Practices,” a recognition given to companies that comply with the quality requirements listed by Mexico’s health authorities. It has also received the “Clean Industry Certificate.” In addition, in recent years the company has won environmental and industrial awards.

The company’s brands are listed among the top 200 medications most often prescribed and sold within Mexico. For respiratory products, its top brands are: Severin, Antifludes, Troferit, and Koptin. For musculoskeletal products its top brands are Alin and Neuralin. For gastrointestinal products, its top brands are Topron and Anara. Its gynecological line includes Gitrasek and the dermatology department sells the brand Synalar.

Currently CHINOIN is positioned among the top seven most important companies in the pharmaceutical industry in Mexico for the number of units and prescriptions.

OPERATING PHILOSHOPHY
When the company established its plant in the state of Aguascalientes, Hagsater notes that it set up operations in a rural area. “Many of those living in the region were agricultural workers,” he explains. Workers often left home and trekked north to the United States in search of work.

With CHINOIN’s presence, however, conditions changed. Today 50 percent of the company’s plant employees come from the surrounding agricultural region, notes Hagsater. “CHINOIN has given these people a chance to work in a sophisticated environment, and living conditions in the area have improved tremendously over the years.”

The company currently operates under a three-fold philosophy that includes a dedication to society, the environment, and the economy.

It offers work to citizens that are 60 years and older. It also employs those living in rural areas of Mexico, as well as college graduates with no outside working experience.

The company generates employment for 1,000 families. In addition to a steady paycheck, the company offers its workers opportunities on both a personal and professional level. “We give them an opportunity to grow and develop,” says Hagsater. “We provide the chance for our employees to continue studying, even up to a masters’ degree level.”

The company actively participates in the development, growth, and improvement of the quality of life in communities with fewer than 5,000 habitants.

CHINOIN has a water treatment plant that allows residual water to be reused in green areas near the plant. It also actively seeks ways to reduce its carbon emissions as a company. It recycles products, and all of the equipment in is plant operates under emission control systems.

The company notes that all of its success has been made possible due to the effort, dedication, enthusiasm, and commitment of its team of workers.

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