Marcelo Argüelles, chairman of Grupo de Empresas Farmacéuticas Sidus, on Argentine competitiveness.

The Grupo de Empresas Farmacéuticas Sidus is an Argentine Business Group with a leading role in contributing to an upgrade within the country's pharmaceutical sector. The organization has successfully faced the evolutionary challenges of this changing sector, in addition to having implemented a thorough internationalization process based on technological innovation. The Argüelles family founded the company in 1938. In the early 1980s the company envisioned the prominent role to be played by biotechnology and created Bio Sidus S.A., so as to concentrate resources on research and development. Throughout its history, the Grupo de Empresas Farmacéuticas Sidus has made continuous investments in research, equipment, technology, and human resources. Currently, it is the third-largest producer in the Argentine pharmaceutical sector being the owner of the three most modern production plants of their kind in Latin America. Today, 65 years after its birth, the group is managed by the second generation of the Argüelles family. Marcelo Argüelles, CEO and chairman, leads a team of 900 professionals, including scientists, technicians, marketing experts, and administrative personnel, all of whom have been the recipients of constant training investments by the company. As for Bio Sidus S.A., after twenty years in operation, it has become a leading organization in its field. Such leadership is based on an efficient integration of business, science, and technology. The company sells six types of protein, not only in the local market but also in more than 30 other countries. Bio Sidus S.A. also has over ten molecules under development and is taking the first steps in such scientific fields as vegetal and animal biotechnology and chemical synthesis. The firm has leveraged its own technology to generate biotechnological raw materials in Argentina. It has successfully integrated science and industry through research agreements with government and private institutions oi both national and international origin. The company has also leveraged a biomedi cine-exporter profile based on quality products and international competitiveness. The motto of the company is "Progress with science." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]