Ten days ago Rodolfo Bellinzoni received a call from South Africa: ““We have an outbreak, we need vaccines.” And in less than 48 hours he was already meeting with authorities in Botswana.
Foot and mouth disease, and Argentina knows this very well, affects cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, is highly contagious and causes losses amounting to millions of dollars.
Bellinzoni, an undisputed name in the scientific field, is known for developing industrial capabilities, particularly in cattle preventive products.
This is the operations manager of Biogenesis Bagó, which has the most modern plant in the world for the production of the foot and mouth disease vaccine at kilometer 38.5 of the Pan-American Highway. Garín produces 200 million cans per year, for the seven different types of foot-and-mouth disease viruses. About 80 million of them are consumed in the country. The rest outside.
70% of the almost $250 million they bill per year comes precisely from them eight plants, 13 subsidiaries and 67 markets in which they are leaders. They employ 1,350 people of 20 different nationalities.
In Argentina, the company, half of the Sigman Gold families and the other half of the Bagó, was at the center of a controversy over the price of the doses, which took on a different dimension when there were voices recommending a halt to vaccinations.
This fight, led by the government’s Federico Rumpfenegger, was over the price of the vaccine decreased, plus the increase in the value of the living kilo After leaving the hacienda, he settled in and stopped debating, at least for now.
As far as vaccination is concerned, the pests that are commonplace on all continents are from pigs in Spain, the occurrence of foot and mouth disease in Germany, Hungary and SlovakiaHemorrhagic fever, bird flu and even the so-called bluetongue disease stifled the arguments of opponents of vaccination.
Everything is to avoid a repeat of the story of 2001, when we were locked out of the world market for 14 years due to an outbreak.
By the way, the South Africa call is no exception. Brazil has just named them as suppliers for its antigen and vaccine bank. Bangladesh bought 14 million doses from them.
More than a decade ago, the company, founded in 1955, set itself the goal of becoming a multinational corporation. Last year they bought Mundo Animal in Brazil, a leader in pet products, with a production facility in Pinda, São Paulo state. And they have a research and development center in Curitiba.
Within a year Factory inaugurated in Saudi Arabialocated in Daman on the Arabian Gulf, 350 kilometers from Riyadh, following an investment of US$40 million and financing from the Saudi International Development Fund. From there they supply the Middle East. They comment that Israel is not buying them just for its own market. Also for the Palestinians.
They came to South Korea with a local partner for a plant in Osong in the center of the country. They will reach full productivity in 2027 and will focus on pigs.
And since 2024, production has been entirely in distant Shanghai, of course with a Chinese partner. There, in addition to foot and mouth disease, they focused on products for animal reproduction.
The main competitor playing in the major leagues is German giant Boehringer Ingelheim. There are other, smaller species such as the Brazilian Vale and the Ouro Fino.
But they have a reference: after very demanding processes, they became a strategic reserve in the Garín of Buenos Aires, via a Vaccine Bank for the United States, Canada and Korea, if there are outbreaks of disease.
Since 2019, Biogenesis has been led by veterinarian and scientific researcher Esteban Tauric, who has been with the company for 20 years and has made an investment of $150 million, a real buying spree that includes: Diversification into other drugs such as the rabies vaccine, for which they are already one of the world’s largest suppliers with 40 million doses per year.
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