About

Dominican-born Rosa Estrella has carved out a somewhat unique career representing Japanese-headquartered biopharma companies as Latin America counsel. Since November 2016 she has led the Latin America legal function at Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas, which, through its affiliates in Brazil and Colombia and its extensive distributor network, sells branded pharmaceutical products throughout the region. Estrella is responsible for managing and overseeing the legal support function teams in Brazil and Colombia, as well as providing general legal counsel to the Latin America business teams located in the US. She handles all legal matters related to the manufacture, promotion, distribution and sale of Astellas’ products in the wider region. ‘Variations in legislations and regulatory frameworks across the region mean that there is no one size fits all approach that I can use as Latin America counsel’, says Estrella. ‘It is therefore extremely important to be well aligned from a local and global standpoint if we want to conduct business successfully in the region.’ Before joining Astellas she was assistant general counsel at Japanese research-based pharmaceutical company Eisai. Estrella arrived at Eisai in 2008, just as the company was looking to enter the Latin American market. Over the next eight years she was one of the key players in establishing the company’s presence in the region, helping to incorporate its Mexican and Brazilian entities and build distribution links across a number of other countries. She started her in-house career in 2004 when, following her time as an associate at Chadbourne & Parke in New York (1999-2004), she took a business development and support role in the international legal team of Dutch pharmaceutical company Organon International. Organon was acquired by Schering-Plough in 2007 and subsequently merged with Merck. Speaking of her current and previous roles advising on Latin American matters, Estrella comments: ‘Given the number of countries and the host of special challenges in connection with IP, compulsory licenses, parallel trading, as well as counterfeiting issues in the region, in our fast-paced environment, it is key to have in place a solid network of local experts and reliable, local counsel knowledgeable in your industry to be able to act at the drop of a pin. Couple that with complying with constantly developing local legislation and global laws with extra-territorial jurisdiction is a huge task for any regional counsel, particularly one working in a heavily regulated industry.’