About

Known the world over and with a recorded global revenue of $52bn in 2016, Pfizer is one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in existence and today operates with around 100,000 employees. The company owns rights to a number of blockbuster (those drugs that generate over $1bn in global annual revenues) and well-known drugs, including Lyrica, Prevnar 13 and Lipitor. Central America and the Caribbean requires Pfizer’s products just as much as any other region, though regulatory and legal oversight from country to country can differ substantially, and given the number of nations in Central America and the Caribbean this requires the Pfizer legal team to hold cross-border knowledge and skills. The company’s Costa Rican based legal director Gabriela Bogantes is supported by an outsourced paralegal and assistant who form the legal department. In addition to Bogantes being primary legal contact for Central America and the Caribbean businesses, Bogantes is primary lawyer for Vaccines and Rare Diseases at Pfizer across Latin America supporting all regional activities from these portfolio of products. Her multi-faceted legal expertise and the contribution of her support staff in the department have contributed to Pfizer’s expansion in the Central American and the Caribbean region. The culture of the legal department of Pfizer at a global level is focused on two commitments, Bogantes explains: ‘Commitment to our customers, which is put into practice by providing ethical and integral legal support and reinforcing this key pillar in the company; by proposing innovative solutions in favor of the corporation and by prioritising tasks according to the needs of the company; and secondly the commitment to ourselves in the department, which is implemented with the empowerment of each team member in their daily work, joint work and through constant learning among us’.