About

In the mountainous and isolated Antioquia region of Colombia, Roche’s Genentech unit is trying to unlock a scientific mystery and cure a disease affecting around 15 million people worldwide. When Johanna Alexandra Cifuentes García joined Roche Colombia in April 2015 as legal and compliance head, the company was just beginning clinical trials on one of its most intriguing – and, from a compliance perspective, challenging – projects in recent years. An extended family whose several thousand members have a high genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s are providing a unique test case for a pioneering drug treatment and genetic therapy that may help identify and treat the neurodegenerative disease. The legal questions raised by this study will be complex, but with a wide experience of handling complex in-house work in both the banking and pharmaceutical sectors, Cifuentes García is well placed to handle it. Cifuentes García started her career as a civil lawyer at the Institute of Urban Development before moving to Banco de Bogotá. She has also held the position of legal director at diversified financials holding company Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and served as compliance officer at GSK for nearly three years before moving to Roche.