The founder and administrator of Biojam Holding Group highly values the word innovation, repeating it several times throughout the interview. He makes it clear right at the beginning of the conversation that, "although we have nothing against it, we are not a generic drug company, we don't want to be one."
He speaks with conviction: "We want differentiated medicines, with a very strong component of innovation. That has been our goal from the beginning."
He was the top executive of a pharmaceutical company when, in 2006, a set of factors led him to make the decision to pursue his own project, which initially offered only one product in the area of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
In 2015, the company was "rebranded," giving birth to Biojam, so named because of the very strong hospital component of biological products - "Bio" - to which were added the initials of the last three words of the founder's name, Carlos Jorge Almeida Monteiro - "jam."
"We started with a product in the area of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, in which we are market leaders at the Iberian level. Then we entered the Anesthesiology market, with pre-filled syringes of substances with well-known active ingredients: atropine, ephedrine, phenylephrine, and adrenaline," says the administrator of Biojam Holding Group.
According to him, this solution with the syringes "brought about an almost zero waste index, being practically zero from the pharmacoeconomic and medical error point of view."
"Subsequently, we made available a unique product for hypertensive emergencies. And so we have been creating a strong hospital market, with the recognition of various players and always focusing on innovation," says Carlos Jorge Monteiro.
This was followed by differentiated food supplements, entry into the specialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and even into the medical cosmetics market. With the arrival of 2020, the project to distribute two cannabis-based products in Portugal should advance, aiming to provide "comfort" - a new "global indication," as our interviewee comments - to those in need of continuous or palliative care and suffering from nausea, pain, lack of appetite, or insomnia...
Biojam Inovar Awards
"Over these past years, many businesses have been proposed to us and we have not accepted them because they would be more of the same, they would not bring any innovation," emphasizes Carlos Jorge Monteiro.
It is not surprising, therefore, that in the meantime, the Biojam Innovate Award was created, with annual awards and editions covering various areas: Anesthesiology, Pediatric Oncology Hematology, Hospital Pharmacy, Perioperative Nursing, Parenteral Nutrition, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
The desire to innovate is so great that the Group has already managed to commercialize the first Biojam brand product. "We invested in the musculoskeletal area, through a research center in Madrid, acquiring the patent for a food supplement based on egg membrane, curcumin, vitamin C, and magnesium.
ArthroJam is indicated in situations where maintaining the functionality of the joints and musculoskeletal structures is relevant," clarifies Carlos Jorge Monteiro.
The administrator wants to make it clear that "Biojam Holding Group is now a reference pharmaceutical company in the Iberian Peninsula, where innovation, from the beginning, combines with rigor, competence, determination, ethics, resilience, and care for others, as fundamental human values."
"As the company grows, social responsibility should be as important as its results. It should be a mandatory objective."
"We are seeking to expand our horizons in various areas," assures Carlos Jorge Monteiro, who insisted that this interview be conducted at the premises of the Kastelo Association.
Biojam Foundation: social responsibility "should be a mandatory objective"
Carlos Jorge Monteiro recalls that he met AAMA - the Association for Adapted Motor Activity, a few years ago because he accepted the invitation to participate in a charity dinner for that institution.
Moved by what he saw, he immediately decided to provide access to support therapies, such as hydrotherapy and hippotherapy, to one of the children. By the end of 2017, there were already five minors being assisted, and the goal was then set to extend support to a dozen children.
"We assumed that we should expand our presence to other projects of the same size, seriousness, and ethics as AAMA and we created the Biojam Foundation, with the purpose of leading each of these new projects," explains Carlos Jorge Monteiro.
Another institution that has since started to be supported is the NOMEIODONADA - Kastelo Association, with the sponsorship of three boys (Gabriel, Rafael, and Diogo), "giving them affection and increasing their comfort and quality of life."
"As the company grows, social responsibility should be as important as its results. It should be a mandatory objective," says Carlos Jorge Monteiro, who challenged his son Diogo Monteiro, currently 25 years old and completing his medical internship, to chair the Biojam Foundation.
