Market entry. Trade agreements. The regulatory and commercial environment. Innovation. Tactical strategies. The road map for doing business in Latin America can be a complicated one. The BIO Latin America Conference, taking place October 26-28 in São Paulo, Brazil, will explore many of the themes addressed in the Emerging Opportunities in Global Markets track at BIO 2016 this past June. Co-hosted by BIO and Biominas, with support from ABBI, this is the must attend event for companies looking to implement their go-to-market strategy in Latin America.

Why Latin America?

• The Latin America pharma market was estimated by IMS at $68B in 2013, expanding at a 12% CAGR to over $110B by 2017.
• Traditional partnerships (i.e. excluding M&A and early venture funding) where a Latin American company served as the ‘seller’ or ‘out-licensor’ have been impressive with 40% more deals being born from 2009/2010 to 2014.
• Brazil’s Development Bank (BNDES) plans to invest up to US $4.2 billion in the production of biotech drugs by 2016; Between 2011 and 2013, the amount of investments by BNDES in the pharma and medical devices sectors increased by 275 percent.
• According to Deloitte’s 2015 Global life sciences report, Across Latin America, health care spending is projected to increase an average of 4.6 percent annually over 2014-2018.
• Latin America’s projected growth rate is at around 6.1 percent annually in 2014-2018.

Why São Paulo?

• São Paulo is considered the largest business hub in Latin America and holds almost half of the corporate headquarters of the big global companies. In addition, around 65 percent of all the foreign companies established in Brazil are operating there;
• The city is the main destination for foreign investment in Latin America and is responsible for approximately 25% of the investment brought to Brazil between 2003-2012;
• The state of São Paulo concentrates 24% of Brazil’s graduation institutions and currently, 387 of these institutions are developing researches, which brings to the 86% of the total amount invested in Science, Technology and Innovation in Brazil;
• The city of São Paulo was elected the best city for startups in Latin America.

For more information, visit bio.org/latinamerica.