About

Jorge Dueñas Zapata is associate director for legal compliance and ethics for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean at pharmaceutical company, Boehringer-Ingelheim. Formerly in-house at Banco Capital where he was deputy legal director for corporate matters, he has been at Boehringer since 2000, and currently manages an eight-strong team. Given the heavily regulated nature of the pharmaceutical sector, and the key role played by intellectual property matters therein, during his tenure he has overseen the implementation of updated control systems for trade marks and patents (as well as litigation and contracts), the digitalization of all judicial archives, and new ethics and compliance programs across the jurisdictions for which he is responsible. In addition, as a trained auditor, Dueñas has also been called upon (both individually and leading a team, as required), to audit the success with which differing offices have implemented new norm, such as in relation to the so-called ‘Sunshine Act’ in the US, and on general compliance matters in Peru. Notwithstanding the success of the programs he has implemented, and the corresponding establishment of what one commentator called a ‘solid culture of compliance’, it is a more traditional problem that has been the greatest challenge in his post to date: the establishment of effective and efficient distribution mechanisms throughout Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.