Cleiton de Castro Marques - BIOLAB CEO
"Until the mid-1980s, the pharmaceutical sector went through a tough period. And we, who were still in the early stages of our business, suffered a lot"
Asking Cleiton de Castro Marques how long he has been working in the pharmaceutical market, and why he became interested in the sector, is like asking him when he first met people. Why? Biolab's CEO explains: "I was practically born in the pharmaceutical market. My father started out in this sector as a medical salesman, built up a career and ended up owning a laboratory".
The struggle of João Marques de Paulo, the father (and main role model) of Cleiton and his four siblings, to reconcile the demands of his profession with his family duties (his mother died early) meant that the family moved cities several times. Born in Belo Horizonte, Cleiton remembers the difficulties they went through. "I never even had the option of thinking about another career, the whole family worked together. Between the late 1970s and the mid-1980s, the pharmaceutical sector went through a tough period. And we, who were still in the early stages of our business, suffered a lot. "
Marques studied economics, but says that academic training wasn't his priority. "We worked like crazy to pay the bills." But it was worth it. Today Biolab comprises three companies (Biolab Sanus, for prescription products; Biolab Genéricos and Biolab Pharmaceutical, which specializes in product development and is based in Canada), employs 3,100 people and is responsible for 9,000 indirect jobs. It is also investing R$ 450 million in the construction of a factory in Pouso Alegre (MG), which will be ready in 2021.
"The cycles in the pharmaceutical industry are very long. The short term is usually three or four years. So we always have to think about the country's development and technological development. It's a very dynamic sector. We are living through a time of incorporating new technologies. Advances in biotechnology have revolutionized the treatment of various diseases, especially autoimmune diseases and now gene therapies."
Innovation is one of the CEO's obsessions. "If we don't innovate, we become commodity manufacturers. That's why I value innovation so much, in every sense: from products to processes. We invest 10% of our turnover in RD&I (research, development and innovation). " Marques says that Biolab has 20 clinical studies underway and almost 300 patents applied for. "We do both radical research, which involves totally new products, and incremental research, with new formulations."
For the executive, one of the main challenges for the health sector, which is responsible for almost 20% of Brazil's GDP, is dealing with constant regulatory changes and the high costs of developing new products. "Another issue is unemployment, as the population ends up without access to medicines," says Marques. "I take great pleasure in launching a product, feeling that it is well received by the medical profession and improving people's quality of life."
Even with his attention focused on Biolab's international expansion, he remains confident in Brazil and believes that the country has all the conditions to make the economic crisis a thing of the past. But lessons need to be learned so that mistakes are not repeated. "This crisis we are experiencing is the result of years of neglect of public affairs. It will take time to correct the damage. But we are putting out fires, and there has been the biggest renewal of Congress in recent times. We have to be increasingly active in demanding that those who represent us do so. "
The professional routine of the executive, who has been married for 42 years and has three children, is exhausting, but he doesn't give up exercising for at least an hour a day and being in contact with nature. With his family, he constantly travels to cities such as Paris, where he strives to discover new gastronomic discoveries and appreciate good wines. (TN)