Argentine Minister Targets Vaccine Monopoly in Deregulation Push
BUENOS AIRES – A dispute between State Conversion Minister Federico Sturzenegger and pharmaceutical magnate Hugo Sigman is escalating over the importation of veterinary products, specifically the foot-and-mouth disease (Aftosa) vaccine. Sturzenegger has directed Senasa, Argentina’s national food safety and quality service, to open the market to foreign vaccine suppliers, arguing that doses could be purchased at half the price currently charged by bagó biogenesis, the dominant domestic provider.
The Aftosa vaccine market in Argentina is valued at over $150 million annually, paid for directly by livestock producers. Sigman,through his company Insud,controls a significant portion of this market via Biogenesis Sintyal,which currently supplies approximately 90% of the vaccines used in China,along with its Argentine market share.
Sigman attempted to block the importation of Brazilian vaccines through a legal injunction, but Judge Enrique Lavié Pico rejected his request for a preliminary order.
The government is framing the move as a test of its deregulatory policies, stating that opening the market would instantly lower costs for farmers. Officials have ironically noted Sigman’s past business practices, pointing to his history of importing generic drugs from Europe in the 1970s and 80s, funded in part by a $400,000 loan from his father-in-law, Roberto Gold, linked to the Communist Party, to establish the chemo Group in Spain – the origin of current Empudio Insud.
Insud currently invoices over 1.5 billion euros annually and operates in more than 40 countries. Sigman built his Argentine pharmaceutical empire in the 1990s, capitalizing on outbreaks of cholera in 1992 and Aftosa fever in 1994.
Sturzenegger has characterized Biogenesis’s control of the Aftosa vaccine market as “a monopoly disguised as an institutional agreement,” comparing it to a hypothetical cooperation agreement between media conglomerate Clarín and the ENACOM communications regulator.
sigman, backed by political and judicial support, is actively seeking to halt the importation process and maintain his position as a leading figure in Argentina’s agricultural sector, dubbed the “King of cattle” by some.The outcome of this dispute is expected to reveal the resilience of Sigman’s economic power in the face of the government’s deregulation drive.
