Global B2B Pharmaceutical Sourcing · Dossier Licensing · Named-Patient Access
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Supply Latin America & the Caribbean

For Indian manufacturers who already hold the approvals these markets accept — and who have good reasons for not having released a dossier to an intermediary before.

Mitul Agarwal
Written by Mitul Agarwal · B.Pharm, MBA
Founder & Head of Business Development · 25+ years in international pharmaceutical BD&L

We are not going to explain why LATAM is attractive

You know. Every manufacturer we speak to knows. The region imports heavily, tender volumes are real, and pricing sits above Africa and much of South East Asia. Nobody in Indian pharma is ignoring Latin America.

So the interesting question is not whether you want the market. It is why, despite wanting it, the dossier still has not moved.

In our experience there are four reasons, and they are all legitimate. This page addresses each one directly rather than pretending they do not exist.

What this page covers
  1. How your dossier is protected
  2. Why an intermediary, when you could go direct
  3. How we avoid asking for speculative work
  4. What we absorb so your RA team does not have to
  5. Which markets your existing GMP already reaches

The four reasons the dossier has not moved

1. “If I release the dossier, I lose control of it.”

The fear is that documentation gets circulated, used to solicit competing quotes, shopped to other buyers, or ends up enabling someone to register the product without you. It is a reasonable fear and it is why most manufacturers stall at exactly this point.

How we handle it
  • We do not ask for a dossier to build a database. Documentation is requested only when a specific, live requirement is on the table — named product, named market, stated volume.
  • Mutual CDA before anything moves. Not a one-way agreement protecting us. It binds both directions and covers onward disclosure.
  • Your documents are not circulated to other manufacturers, and are never used to benchmark or pressure a competing quote.
  • Buyer disclosure is staged. Approvals and country of manufacture first; identity and full technical file only once the buyer has signed and the requirement is firm.
  • You approve the counterparty. We tell you who the buyer is before your dossier reaches them.

2. “Why would I pay a margin when I can deal with the buyer directly?”

A fair question, and one we would rather answer honestly than dodge. If you have a direct relationship, local representation and the regulatory bandwidth for a market, you probably should go direct.

Where we actually earn the margin
  • The local holder problem. Every LATAM market requires a locally established entity to hold the registration. Setting that up in twenty markets is not a realistic use of your capital; using a distributor in each hands them your market access.
  • Multi-product, multi-market requirements. A hospital tender arrives as 140 lines across a dozen categories. No single manufacturer supplies all of it. Aggregating that is work you do not want to do.
  • Orders below your BD threshold. A first order of one container is not worth your business development team's time, but it is how a ten-year relationship starts.
  • Payment and country risk. Several of these markets carry real receivable risk. We take that position rather than putting it on your balance sheet.
  • Buyer qualification. We filter enquiries before they reach you, so your team is not quoting to people who will never place an order.

If none of those apply to a given market, go direct. We would rather be useful where we are useful than argue for a role we are not adding to.

3. “I am not doing dossier work and CoPP costs on a maybe.”

Fresh CoPPs, legalisation, artwork, document compilation and RA time all cost real money. No manufacturer wants to spend it speculatively — and yet an intermediary cannot usually offer a firm order until it has something to quote with. That is a genuine deadlock.

How we break it
  • We bring the requirement first. You hear from us when there is a buyer and a specification, not before.
  • Staged disclosure. Stage one is a written confirmation of what you hold — approvals, formats, BE position. No documents. That alone is enough for us to know whether you can be matched.
  • Documents only after the buyer commits. Full technical file is requested when the requirement is firm and the buyer has signed a CDA.
  • Registration costs are structured, not assumed. Who funds the filing, and how it is recovered, is agreed before anyone spends anything.

4. “My regulatory team is already full.”

Every filing competes with markets that are already generating revenue. A new territory with unfamiliar requirements loses that argument internally, no matter how attractive the market is.

What we take off your team
  • Pathway determination per market — which authority, which dossier format, whether BE is required, what reliance route applies.
  • Local holder and representation, so you are not incorporating entities or negotiating with distributors market by market.
  • Legalisation and apostille chain, translation, and the name-consistency checks that quietly consume weeks.
  • Query handling through the review, with your RA team involved only where a technical answer is genuinely needed.
  • Tender documentation assembly — the technical file that decides institutional bids before price is opened.

Your team supplies documents and answers technical questions. Everything between that and the registration certificate is ours.

What your existing GMP already reaches

This is the part most manufacturers underestimate. Latin America runs substantially on regulatory reliance — smaller authorities give weight to assessments already carried out by larger ones. The approvals on your wall are doing more work than you think.

WHO-GMPEU-GMPUS FDAPIC/S TGAANVISACOFEPRISINVIMA NMPA ChinaCEP / DMF

The Pan American Health Organization designates eight Regional Reference Regulatory Authorities — ANMAT (Argentina), ANVISA (Brazil), Health Canada, ISP (Chile), INVIMA (Colombia), CECMED (Cuba), US FDA and COFEPRIS (Mexico). An approval from one of these, or from a stringent authority such as the EMA, materially reduces the evidence burden across the rest of the region.

Where one dossier travels

Central America — RTCA bloc

One harmonised dossier standard across six countries. The strongest regional economics anywhere in LATAM.

Guatemala · El Salvador · Honduras · Nicaragua · Costa Rica · Panama · Belize

Mercosur

Harmonised GMP and distribution standards. An ANMAT or ANVISA approval is strong leverage across the bloc.

Argentina · Brazil · Paraguay · Uruguay · Bolivia · Venezuela

Andean Community

Regional harmonisation work on medicines. INVIMA approval carries particular weight here.

Colombia · Peru · Ecuador · Bolivia

Mexico & the north

COFEPRIS is a PAHO reference authority in its own right and influential across Central America and the Caribbean.

Mexico

Southern Cone — independent

ISP Chile is a PAHO reference authority. Uruguay is moving regulation to a new agency, AViSU.

Chile · Uruguay

Caribbean

Smaller volumes individually, meaningful in aggregate, and heavily import-dependent — very little is manufactured locally.

Dominican Republic · Cuba · Jamaica · Trinidad and Tobago · Haiti · Puerto Rico

Markets we work across

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Mexico & Central America: Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.
Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos.

Country-by-country registration guides

What we need from you to start

Nothing confidential. Stage one is a written statement of what you already hold — enough for us to know whether you can be matched to the requirements we are working on.

  • Which GMP approvals you hold, and which authority issued each
  • What dossier format you can make available — CTD, EU-CTD, ACTD or national
  • Whether BE studies exist for the products concerned, and against which reference
  • Your dosage forms and therapeutic segments
  • Any LATAM registrations you already hold, so we do not duplicate or conflict with an existing partner

Manufacturer partnership enquiry

1 · Your company
2 · GMP approvals held *

Tick every approval currently valid for the site you would supply from.

3 · Dossier position
4 · Your portfolio
How we treat this. Nothing here is confidential and we are not asking for documents at this stage. We use it only to check whether your approvals match requirements we are working on. We will not add you to a public supplier list, and we will not contact your existing LATAM partners.

Would rather talk before filling anything in?

Reasonable. Terms of engagement are easier to settle in a conversation than on a form.

Arrange a call

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The first stage is a written statement of what you hold — which GMP approvals, which dossier format, whether BE studies exist. No documents change hands. That is enough for us to know whether your approvals match a requirement we are working on. Documentation is requested only when a specific buyer and requirement are on the table, and only under a mutual confidentiality agreement.

A mutual CDA is signed before anything moves, binding in both directions and covering onward disclosure. Your documents are not shared with other manufacturers, not used to benchmark or pressure competing quotes, and not sent to a buyer until that buyer has signed and you have approved them as a counterparty.

For some markets you should go direct, and we would say so. Where we add value is the local holder requirement that every LATAM market imposes, multi-product tender requirements no single manufacturer can fill, orders below your business development threshold, payment and country risk we take onto our position rather than yours, and buyer qualification so your team is not quoting to people who will never order.

No. We bring the requirement first — buyer, market, specification. Who funds a filing, and how it is recovered, is agreed before anyone spends anything. We do not ask for fresh CoPPs or legalisation on a maybe.

No, and it is the most common reason manufacturers stall. We handle pathway determination per market, the local holder and representation, legalisation and apostille, translation, name-consistency checks and query handling. Your team supplies documents and answers technical questions where a technical answer is genuinely needed.

WHO-GMP is the practical baseline across most of the region. EU-GMP, US FDA or PIC/S materially strengthen the position, particularly for sterile products, biologics and biosimilars. An approval from a PAHO regional reference authority — ANMAT, ANVISA, Health Canada, ISP, INVIMA, CECMED, US FDA or COFEPRIS — reduces the evidence burden across neighbouring markets.

No. We do not publish supplier names, and you will not appear on a public directory. That protects you as much as it protects us — a published list invites your existing buyers to approach you directly around whatever arrangement we have.

Tell us which ones on the form. We will not approach markets where you have an existing arrangement, and we will not contact your current partners. There is usually plenty of unaddressed territory left.

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