Latin America stands out as one of the main growing regions, having a market expansion that has averaged 14% per year between 2008 and 2012 and is expected to maintain an average of 12% per year through 2017. It is estimated that the region’s eight major countries — Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Peru and Venezuela — represented a market retail value of $80bn in 2013. Mexico is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets in the world valued at over USD 13.5 billion and growing at 9-10% annually.

Latin America has a population of more than 569 million people and only two official languages are spoken in the entire region: Spanish and Portuguese. This gives the region an advantage over Europe, especially as far as document translation, study team training and communication.

In Latin America you have access to some of the most populated cities in the world. The metropolitan areas of Mexico City (20 million), Guadalajara (5 million) and Monterrey (4 million) concentrate close to 30 million. These large concentrations of people give investigators access to thousands of possible patients that are treatment or trial naïve, which translates into high enrollment rates and subject retention.