“We focus on meeting international standards"

How was Farmalog born?

The company started its operations in 2010 with a view to offer high quality standards and service levels in the industry of pharmaceutical logistics, and under such focus we grew in the Uruguayan market. We work with top notch clients, providing services to Roche, Bayer, Sanofi, Novartis, and Alcon. It took us 10 years to get this far. Having started as an 8-employee company with 600-square-meter warehousing space, we became a company that has 80 employees with facilities exceeding 6000 square meters in the domestic pharmaceutical logistics market. Additionally, as a separate division, we have a quality control lab to test drugs for importers that do not have labs of their own.

When did you realize it was time to expand?

In 2020, we understood that the conditions were in place to take the service to a regional level, and that is when we started to consider the possibility of Free Trade Zones in general and ZONAMERICA in particular. We conducted the corresponding enquiries with respect to the different FTZ options in Uruguay and we went for ZONAMERICA.

In addition to Roche, we currently have the regional operation of Sanofi. We also have the operation of Cold Chain Technologies, a US company that provides packaging solutions and materials for the pharma industry. We are about to start operations with FarmaMondo, which is a quite interesting multinational pharmaceutical company. We are committed to make our local clients acquainted with both the benefits of the Free Trade Zone Law and the advantages of ZONAMERICA to get them to operate in the park.

Why are you the choice of labs?

We have four characteristics that make us special. When Farmalog was born, I noticed the market lacked suppliers focused on international standards. In other words, back then there were only local operators that complied with the requirements of the Ministry of Public Health to have the corresponding authorization. We went farther. I worked at Roche for several years, so the idea was to leverage what I had learnt and pour that knowledge into an enterprise intended to exceed local requirements and aimed at complying with the highest international standards.

In fact, we have managed to maintain high levels in all standards required by this type of global companies. We take each of the audits of these companies as an opportunity to incorporate what we learn into our own system. We take the best of each one and strengthen our system in all aspects related to security, environment, service, and quality. That is, without question, one of the main aspects that sets us apart.

Farmalog was created with the aim of complying with the highest international standards.

Do you work exclusively with pharmaceutical products and alike?

That’s right. That is another major aspect that makes us different as we can focus and train our staff in a very specific industry. For instance, in the event of a new pandemic our staff members have an edge since they are specially trained in the pharma industry. So, this creates a third pillar from a salary standpoint as remunerations are adjusted to the ones paid in the pharmaceutical market, which stand 30% above the average remunerations in the logistics market. The way in which we manage our human resources is one of the things that differentiate us, and the salary side is important.

Together with human resources, our pharmaceutical specificity, and the service we provide, our fourth pillar is that we promote the reduction of our carbon footprint to bring it close to zero. This is why we invest in the use of solar panels. Between 50% and 75% of our energy is generated with our own solar panels. We have already incorporated two electrical vehicles and the idea is to be fully electric by 2025.

Which other environment-friendly actions do you perform?

Farmalog, by using several environmental systems, promotes the reduction of waste generation. Our main goal for 2023 is to maximize the use of this type of systems. Service, quality, training, weighing of human resources, and reduction of the environmental impact are largely valued by the global pharma industry.

What challenges are implied in offering specialized warehousing in the pharma industry?

The pharma industry and pharmaceutical warehousing regulations imply certain storage conditions that are subject to controls as to temperature, cleanliness and tidiness that require incorporating equipment for such purposes.

Our storage warehouses have constant temperatures ranging from 15º to 25º Celsius. In order to assure these conditions, the first thing we have to do is to map and qualify the warehouses. By using probes we are required to prove that, at any time of the year, and regardless of the outside temperature, we do not deviate from that temperature range. At the same time, we implement pest controls, cleaning logs, operating procedures, etc. So, the challenge is to transform a standard warehouse into a pharmaceutical warehouse. We invest in modern warehouses to assure our clients the same storage standards and conditions for pharmaceutical products, including construction of airlocks, electric elevators, sensors, video cameras, software, and datacenters.

In the past years, Uruguay has positioned as a major logistics hub, especially in the pharma industry. To what do we owe this phenomenon?  

As a result of congested ports and airports in Brazil, as well as delays in the clearance of products, many companies have considered the advantage of managing transportation from Uruguay to key destinations, such as Sao Paulo. In addition, the economic situation in Argentina led companies to transfer their stocks to Uruguay, a country that offers the benefit of being only 24 hours away from Buenos Aires, avoiding the Argentine foreign exchange and economic uncertainty.

Despite these advantages, we have noticed that many companies are not aware of the opportunities offered by Uruguay, in particular under the Free Trade Zone Law. This lack of awareness represents a challenge and proves that there is still much to do in terms of promotion and communication abroad.