How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

During periods of instability or crisis it is crucial for a general counsel to be flexible, this will allow you to reaccommodate your resources to rapidly respond to the upcoming challenges. I am convinced that a general counsel must always have a clear understanding of the business strategy to ensure that legal strategy is in alignment with it. Furthermore, during periods of crisis, a legal team plays a pivotal role giving to the organisation that piece of mind, in the sense that the organisation remains compliant with all relevant laws and regulations while we are willing to keep providing the proper legal advice and support to face the imminent situations. 

What are the main cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?   

We are in the process of changing the business model in Ecuador and Peru, it will be a more reactive and not promotional approach. Besides the regular negotiations with potential distributors, it has been very challenging to ensure the correct understanding of the new model and, at the same time, to be flexible to adapt our strategy to the regulations in each country. On the other hand, in Colombia we have been preparing the launch of our first vaccine, besides our usual highly specialised portfolio of medicines so, particularly this last year, we have been in a process of constant learning and adapting to a totally different business approach. This new approach implies for instance, legal negotiations with new stakeholders, including public entities in the national and local level, as well as entering additional digital channels such as social media for disease awareness campaigns, now for healthy individuals instead of patients.   

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?   

In Takeda, sustainability is a key focus across all business functions. One example in Colombia is the recent agreement with one logistic partner to carry out the urban distribution of our medicines through electrical vehicles, contributing to the reduction of greenhouse emissions in Bogota. Besides, we recently received the first sea freight of a shipping container of our medicines in Colombia, as an alternative to the air freight transportation. In my view, the role of the general counsel is to be the partner that works hand in hand with business areas to facilitate the implementation of sustainability practices and to support these initiatives by anticipating potential risks and developing strategies to address such potential risks.     

In your opinion, what are the main trends that are salient in your country currently?  

One of the main trends currently in Colombia is the legislative agenda of the government which includes, among others, profound changes to our pension and labor law systems as well as our healthcare system. Of course, all these changes imply an important involvement of legal departments. This involvement starts with the initial discussions and comments to the bills, in collaboration with the various trade associations, while attending seminars and conferences with experts on each field to have a deeper understanding of each bill. Furthermore, we also need to run the internal analysis of the impacts on our business, the employees and ultimately the evaluation of the actions that the company should take to design the best way to adapt our operations to the upcoming changes.