July 26, 2016 Serving Human Lives

Volume 11 | Issue 3

A leader on the Mexican market in drugs manufacturing, PiSA Farmaceutica Mexicana utilizes cutting-edge practices in pharmaceutical production and research operations. Piotr Sadowski reports.

In 1945 PiSA’s founder, Professor Miguel Alvarez Ochoa, together with a group of prominent Mexican physicians, decided to launch a company producing drugs especially designed and formulated for treating illnesses in children. The need was certainly there, as up until that time the youngest patients had to undergo therapy using adult pharmaceuticals, making precise dose estimation very difficult.
The modest beginnings thus took off under the business name Productos Infantiles, S.A., manufacturing initially 10 pharmaceutical products for pediatric patients. From the very outset of operations, adherence to the highest standards of quality and safety and implementation of the most rigorous drug manufacturing conditions were key factors driving the business.

DIVERSIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Since the beginning of operations, the company was recognized for its professionalism, hard work and knowledge and consumers’ acceptance of the company’s managers and staff. This quickly paid off with solid business growth and expansion of operations. As a result, 10 years later the manufacturer’s name was changed from Productos Infantiles S.A., to its acronym: Laboratorios PiSA S.A. de C.V.

“Towards the end of the 1960s the producer began cooperation with a number of other foreign pharmaceutical companies,” says Alfonso Páramo, general director of Pisa. “This enabled us to start the process of diversifying into the market for prescription drugs, which created strong basis for dynamic growth during the coming decades. It is also important to note that from the beginning of the 1990s PiSA decided to seriously focus on supplying the government as well as private market businesses.”

During the last decade of the 20th century, PiSA also started a dynamic process of introducing many of its leading product brands and created associations with a number of foreign drug companies in order to gain vital know-how as well as access to new markets. The diversification of the portfolio of products continued throughout the decade and towards the latter part of the 1990s the company decreased its dependence on government contracts and gradually increased its operations on the private market. As a result, nowadays approximately 32 percent of all drugs manufactured by PiSA are supplied to government-owned institutions, with the remaining 68 percent destined for private customers in Mexico and many export markets.

CURRENT POSITION
Nowadays, after more than 60 years and with more than 6,500 dedicated and highly experienced production, research and management staff members, PiSA continues to be the leader in the Mexican pharmaceutical industry.

“The dynamic growth and successful operations would not have been possible without adhering to our business philosophy of effectively and timely satisfying our clients’ needs in the healthcare market, by designing, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceutical products and medical devices, always with the utmost quality in mind and in a philosophy of continuous excellence and development,” explains Páramo. “Other factors that have contributed to our current successes include our constant search for excellence, performing the best practices in research, manufacture and management, as well as always remembering “that ultimate client convenience is the guiding objective for our operations.” Healthy financials, reinvesting profits in further growth and continued diversification of its manufacturing is the key factor of company success.

PiSA is a leading Mexican pharmaceutical company, backed by 100 percent Mexican capital. PiSA is also focused on establishing strategic alliances with important Mexican and foreign pharmaceutical consortia and companies, in order to create effective and safe medical products that benefit human health in the country and beyond. With perfectly equipped manufacturing plants located across Mexico and subsidiaries in Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, among others and an extensive distribution network across the region, PiSA supplies its cutting-edge pharmaceutical products to customers throughout several Latin American countries. It also runs business activities with clients in the U.S., the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East.

WIDE-RANGING SCOPE OF OPERATIONS
PiSA researches, produces and distributes drug products as well as over the counter (OTC) medications and healthcare products to customers across the private and public sectors. With private sector clients like wholesalers, hospitals, clinics and retailers, as well as governmental health care providers. PiSA has close to 20 different manufacture lines specialized pharmaceutical manufacturing areas and over 900 different products in its portfolio.

The company specializes in OTC products, pediatrics medications, intensive care medications, clinical nutrition, oncology, anesthetics, prescription medicines, nephrology and hospital antibiotics, among others. Main product categories include: large volume parenterals, supplied in glass and plastic containers, glass injection vials glass and plastic ampoules, medical devices, oral electrolyte solutions, haemodialysis and peritonealdialysis solutions, antimicrobial drugs, anticancer drugs, as well as diverse oral forms like capsules, tablets syrups and suspensions.

PiSA always has the safety and well-being of the final users in mind, and therefore utilizes a wide range of management systems which guarantee the highest levels of safety, including robust state-of-the-art information management tools for QA-QC and production. In addition to LIMS, PiSA is certified by a range of agencies from both Mexico and abroad (including ISO: 9001 certification awarded since 1997).

The company also maintains ongoing technological and commercial partnerships with renowned international consortia such as B. Braun, Bohus Biothech, Biotest, Organon, Rovi Pharmaceuticals and Schering Oy, among many others. In addition, the manufacturer operates world-class R&D laboratories where more than 180 highly skilled and specially-trained researchers work diligently to improve existing products and processes and develop new and better products for treatment of human illnesses.

A robust marketing approach also supports PiSA’s successful operations, where teams of specialists are always available to provide customers with professional consultation and support and cover existing as well as potential new customers in Mexico and abroad. All teams work with up-to-date scientific and medical information relating to the company’s products.

PiSA also supports its operations in a strong distribution and logistics department with strategically located regional warehouses and one national distribution center, providing efficient and timely delivery of its medications as well as medical devices to customers in Mexico and overseas.

PiSA also specializes in contract manufacturing of drug products for Mexican and foreign pharmaceutical companies. The range of products offered under contract manufacture services includes antibiotics (penicillin, cephalosporins, and others), injections, lyophilized products (cytotoxic and non-cytotoxic), LVP and SVP, tablets, and capsules.

A CONSIDERATE COMPANY
With its commitment to society, customers, employees and shareholders, the company’s vision is to continue developing as the leading Mexican pharmaceutical company serving human health markets. In addition, PiSA also maintains tremendous respect for the environment. Over the years it has invested in numerous eco-friendly solutions in its production sites, a strategy that enabled all of its manufacturing locations to receive Clean Industry certification.

In its future development path PiSA will always continue to abide by the commitment to its values and mission. By creating drugs and medical devices of the highest quality and safety, meeting and exceeding international standards and regulations enforced in pharmaceutical products. The company is on track to further diversify its portfolio by enhancing existing products and introducing new ones, keeping abreast of new technologies, improving efficiency by simplifying procedures and reducing costs, to boost its market share throughout Latin America. Above all, PiSA is determined to remain a socially responsible enterprise dedicated to serving human lives.

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