|
The legal department of consumer healthcare at the Latin American northern cluster reports to a Latin American Legal Director (Carla Simas) located/based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The northern cluster has Central America and the Caribbean (including Puerto Rico), Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as its territory. Ricardo Estrada is the legal head of the consumer healthcare division for the northern cluster and works from Costa Rica visiting all the countries on regular bases among his territory.
Definitely the most significant transaction has been the joint venture with Pfizer and what this represents for the consumer healthcare division at GSK; the company goal is to completely separate the divisions of pharmaceuticals and vaccines and consumer healthcare within three years. After the joint venture, GSK and Pfizer have created the world’s largest consumer healthcare company with more than seven per cent of the global business. On another subject, in Costa Rica we are in the process of closing a local factory with more than 100 employees and the legal risk from different aspects is been handled properly and minimised in a very positive and efficient way (labour and free zone benefits and commitments mainly). The legal department has even worked on the communications with other employers in the country that may be interested on the hiring of people that will be leaving the GSK factory in the country but have a very good knowledge and training for companies within the industry.
Several, but among the most important have been the recent changes and labour law reforms in several countries and the political challenges in Nicaragua with the people’s opposition. In conclusion, Central America, the Caribbean and other countries in South America have the fact that they are in constant and frequent evolution and changes in common. The internal lawyer’s obligation is to always be aware of changes and proactively work ahead of potential problems.
Day one for the joint venture with Pfizer in several countries will come early in 2020. Global day one was on 1 August 2019 (the United States, Europe, China and other key markets) but our goal is to assist the local teams to reach the success without legal issues as expected.
All members and collaborators of our legal team now understand the importance of their roles and the legal department is now a key business partner and our participation is more tangible in the search of corporate goals. The different legal heads for the pharma/vaccines and consumer healthcare divisions work closely on behalf of GSK to achieve the company goals and objectives which is positive for the patients and clients perception of the company. Our team understands the fact that becoming an in-house lawyer could be your perfect vocation but you need to know the role of a legal counsel is no longer limited to managing the legal risk associated with the business, effective legal counsels now need to partner with the business, understand its issues and produce viable and tangible solutions.
Several, among the most important the recent changes and labour law reforms in several countries, the political challenges in Nicaragua with the people’s opposition, in conclusion Central America, the Caribbean and other countries in South America have in common the fact that they are in constant and frequent evolution and changes, the internal lawyer’s obligation is to always be aware of changes and proactively work ahead of potential problems.
What seems to unite many in Latin America is the perception that health litigation is particularly acute and often problematic in the region, health care public institutions due to their low budgets usually purchase low quality drugs in the region and patients with health issues go to court to claim for the rights. Concern with the rise of health litigation is of course not unique to Latin America, but some of the traditional worries about judges interfering in the realm of public policy seem more intense in that region. This is due largely to what some describe as an explosion of litigation experienced in some of the region’s countries (Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil) and a heightened disposition of judges to enforce the right to health through strong remedies in comparison to non-Latin American countries.
Big pharmaceutical companies with innovative drugs are commonly considered expensive drugs in the region because of the low budgets, corruption levels and ignorance, but, as Oscar Wilde remarked a century ago ‘nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing’, and an in-house lawyer working at our teams is always worry about understanding the value of our products and how expensive is to transform R&D into market available drugs and hope for our patients in close collaboration with our commercial teams.
Legal departments in today’s corporations need to understand they are key players for the achievement of the goals and objectives of the company. We need to understand where the risk is and what are the main challenges for the company among our markets, and with the same kind of willingness we need to be devoted to defending our products, employees and our actions at all times. Legal departments are not just problem solvers; they should be ahead of the problems with prevention systems and controls. In our interactions with external legal services providers, we need to help them to understand the needs of the corporation and explain that litigation is not our core business and should not be the solution in all cases.
