Above all, Antonio Mingorace (Lanjarón, 1957) defines himself as a pharmacist, but for four years he has run the second largest pharmaceutical distribution company in the country. Bidafarma is a gigantic cooperative born from the merger of twelve other cooperatives and that, says its president, is its essence and the basis of its management. Also, in view of their numbers, their success. He says that he is not looking for profit for profit's sake, but turnover has skyrocketed from 2,524 million in 2021 to 3,203 million in 2025, with a national market share of 23%, which in Andalusia reaches 75%. The cooperative formula, which he believes is underused, is, in his opinion, behind the success of Bidafarma and is essential to maintain the universal health and medicine provision system. That is why he warns against other imported formulas that, being legitimate, he says, can take their toll.
The renewal of the Governing Council of Bidafarma has just been completed and you have been re-elected president until 2030. Does that mean that the future lies in combining renewal and experience?
It is not about continuity or immobility, but about being in continuous evolution because things now happen much faster than before. What used to take ten years to happen, today happens in a year, even in six months. We have a Governing Council that is balanced, it has people with experience and young people so that they can be trained. We have created a Governing Council for the future and, above all, to ensure and guarantee the main objective of Bidafarma, which is service to pharmacy and service to society.
What will this new stage of Bidafarma consist of?
We have to adapt to what society demands. The pharmacy is in charge of supplying medicines to the entire society, of pharmaceutical provision, which is perhaps the most powerful therapeutic weapon that society has and it is the pharmacy that has to deliver it to citizens in the most efficient way possible, with the highest quality. And above all with equity, which reaches all citizens on equal terms.
You were elected president in 2022 and have been at the helm for four years now. What balance does it make?
These first four years have been about consolidating the merger project, which was complicated. We made a merger of twelve cooperatives from all territories, with different ideologies, way of thinking, way of seeing things... But it is also true that the fact that we all had a single objective in common, which was to serve the pharmacy, helped. In 2030 it will be a century since pharmaceutical cooperatives were created in Spain and I believe that they were among the first to be created and were created to serve pharmacy and serve society, so that pharmaceutical services reach all citizens regardless of where they are.
And what objectives have you set for the next four years? What is going to change in the management of Bidafarma?
The first thing we have to do is adapt to new technologies. Obviously we will have to be more efficient in service, in logistics and in care and in everything that has something to do with health, artificial intelligence should help a lot in bureaucracy, although decisions always have to be made by people.
In the last five years, turnover has gone from 2,524 million to 3,203. What has caused such notable growth?
We are not in the entire national territory, but where we are we have a high market share and I believe that the almost 11,000 pharmacies we serve have felt fully identified with the Bidafarma project, with the Governing Council and with what Bidafarma means, what it wants to be, the common home of the Spanish pharmacy and I think that little by little we are achieving it. It is because things are done well.
Does Bidafarma occupy the position it wants to occupy?
For us, the most important thing is that we are a pharmacy because we feel totally like pharmacists and our place is with the pharmacy. We are identified with the pharmacy model that we have in our country. We defend independent pharmacists, one by one. We believe that everything in the world of pharmacy should be for all pharmacies. We are clear about that, it must be accessible to all pharmacies, regardless of where it is. We do not like to differentiate first, second or third class pharmacies. We have to ensure that all the services provided by Bidafarma are for all pharmacies, all pharmacists, for all citizens. That's where we want to be.
What is Bidafarma's roadmap for the coming years?
Billing is what matters the least to us. We want to grow, but not grow for the sake of growing. We want to grow to serve, serve better and provide better service. If we do this, I believe that the future of pharmacy is assured and if the future of pharmacy is assured, ours is assured.
The staff has also grown, but the number of partners even more...
Yes, because we are also characterized by one thing, that we say what we do, but we also do what we say and that is very important. And in these times coherence is not very far. We want to be as consistent as possible with who we are and with what we do and what we think.
Furthermore, Bidafarma, which was the result of the merger of twelve cooperatives, has turned ten years old. All at the same time, the same year. How would you say the evolution of Bidafarma has been in this decade?
One of the goals of the merger was to carry it out doing as little harm as possible to everyone. In fact we did not do any ERE. We have tried to be exquisite both at the political level and at the work level. For us, people were very important and I think that has been one of our successes, that there is a good work environment. We have also tried not to lose our proximity to the territories, which I believe we have achieved. This growth and the increase in the number of members is proof that we must not have done wrong.
Have expectations been met?
Yes, I believe that expectations have been met. The first thing is that the pharmacy already has a cooperative that thinks about pharmacy. It has a cooperative that thinks, that knows and all of us who are part of the governing council know, that the pharmacy model that exists in Spain would not be possible without the distribution model that we have, but without the distribution model that we have it would not be possible to sustain the pharmacy model that we have, a model that is the one that guarantees equity in pharmaceutical provision.
Bidafarma has consolidated itself in recent years as one of the largest in the pharmaceutical distribution sector...
Yes, that's true, we are only behind Cofares, we would be second. We have been around for ten years, but we are the sum of cooperatives that, in some cases, would be one hundred years old in 2030. But above all, I believe that it has consolidated itself as a company that we all believe in, which is more important than being big.
What was the origin of Bidafarma? What gap was there in the sector that justified its creation?
We perceived that we had to do newer things, we understood that the future had to involve having strength, not to be bigger, but to be able to do better and provide better service. What moved us was to look for the good of the pharmacy. The seed was Cecofar, which was the Seville cooperative, and there was the Farmanova group, a group that we had created among six or seven other cooperatives and that's when we started talking. I believe that a merger between 12 companies at the same time has never been done. I'm not talking about size, but I'm talking about number, and it was amazing.
Seen with the perspective of a decade, do you think the merger was right?
Well, I am super convinced. If we had not made this merger, the map of pharmaceutical distribution in Spain would be different and possibly the pharmacy would have also noticed it. And especially when the pandemic came later... Three years after merging, the pandemic appeared and caught us in the middle of the process and what could have been a problem, because in principle it was that, it was an opportunity to prove to ourselves that we were capable of doing everything we wanted to do.
Was it, furthermore, the way to face increasing competition?
Competition does not scare us, we do not have any problems, but the merger has allowed us to be much more efficient and, by being much more efficient, we have had more resources. Having more resources without worsening the service has allowed us to make investments in our warehouses, to create technologically spectacular warehouses. For example, here in Seville in November we inaugurated the Camas warehouse, which will involve an investment of almost five million euros.
Is the cooperative formula the main hallmark of Bidafarma? Is it the best formula in a sector like pharmaceutical distribution?
Yes, without a doubt, it is the best formula for a sector such as pharmaceutical distribution and, in general, for the pharmacy model, so that pharmaceutical provision is universal. If this universality of the system is not guaranteed equally for all citizens, regardless of where they are, then the model is useless. We are a social health economy company. What does it mean? That here we are not looking for pure and simple profit, that everything we earn we dedicate to being better. But in addition, if we have to go to a town to take lost medicines, we do it. And how is it done? With the solidarity of the other pharmacy. It is a solidarity model. That in another commercial model, equally legitimate, would hardly be sustainable.
Is it a purely Spanish model in this sector?
In Spain, pharmaceutical distribution through cooperatives represents 80% of the market. In Europe there is cooperative pharmaceutical distribution, but multinationals are present and that is a different type of model. This also depends on the pharmaceutical provision and health service in those countries. Here we have another health service and another pharmaceutical benefit, which is universal here.
Are there plans to grow with new mergers?
We want to grow, we are always open. The cooperative that wants to integrate into Bidafarma, that has the thinking that we have, will have its doors open. Right now there is something, something may happen.
Is the objective to increase market share?
In Andalusia we have 75%, it is impossible to grow more. And in Spain, 23%. The idea is to continue doing things well.
Do you think that in Spain the cooperative formula is underused?
It is underused because it has not been well explained and the Administration should promote cooperativism. Promoting is helping, not putting spokes in the wheels.
You are a strong advocate of community pharmacy. What role would you say it plays in the national health system? Is the model guaranteed or is it in danger?
Community pharmacy is what seeks equity in pharmaceutical provision, it is the first entry point to the health system where a patient can go – any citizen can go – to request a public benefit without making an appointment, which is not a trivial matter. To the extent that citizens rely on pharmacists, our model will be guaranteed. What we pharmacists cannot do is let ourselves be carried away by siren songs. We have to be independent and pharmacies are private health establishments of public interest. A proprietor, a pharmacy and also independent. Be careful with strange adventures that can cost us a lot.
Is that where the Administration comes in?
The Administration, to the extent that it is the health authority, is the one that has to ensure this model.
A decisive element is also distribution, as has been evident in crisis situations such as the pandemic. Does Spain have a strong model capable of resisting in extreme cases?
I think we have proven it. Medicines continued to reach all citizens on time during the pandemic. No one can say that they were missing medication. And I believe that what it did do was make visible and demonstrate that we were capable of responding in crisis situations and, furthermore, with solvency. If the model fails at that moment, we would have a problem.
Is the Spanish pharmaceutical distribution sector at the level of other countries?
Technologically, we are perhaps one of the best countries; There are few countries in a comparable situation.
What challenges does the sector face?
Obviously, we have to adapt to artificial intelligence and we have to use it, above all, to eliminate everything that is bureaucracy, everything that is administrative, that is mechanical. But health issues have to be decided by people.
An already historic debate is that of the co-payment of medications. Is it an option to take into account if we want the system to be viable?
I believe that there has not been a serious debate, it has been removed, it has been put... A consensus had been reached that it would be managed based on each person's income and I will never understand that there are people who have a minimum salary and have to have a certain contribution and that there are people who have a salary three or four times higher and have to make the same contribution. I think a serious debate is missing because, among other things, this is not finite. Resources are finite and if we want to have access to new medications, new treatments, we have to rationalize this a little with a co-payment that is socially fairer so that there is no pharmaceutical poverty. This must be a serious debate and I believe that this is no longer a question of ideology, since health has no ideology.
This Government has taken measures that affect the sector, such as the disappearance of the traditional medicine coupon, the verification system... What do you think of the management it is doing?
I believe that what we all have to do is row in the same direction and help the health authority so that the measures they take are compatible with the work we carry out and make it easier for us.
Is there hyperregulation?
Ours is a regulated, super-regulated sector, and I believe it should be regulated. When you receive a medication you have to receive it with confidence and with the guarantee of what you are receiving and that what you are going to give to the person is of sufficient solvency. The medicine cannot be trivialized like any other product. Does the Administration have to regulate? Well obviously, and what we have to do is help with that.
