The Big Pharma Paradox

Reflexión sobre trabajar en la industria farmacéutica y la contradicción frente a la salud mental.

Pharma illustration
Photo by Getty Images on Unsplash

I worked in Pharma for seven years.

Specifically, I worked at Sanofi across Costa Rica and Mexico, in different roles involving Marketing, Sales, and Finance.

I learned a lot.

I learned how global brands operate. I learned how regional strategy works. I learned how marketing connects with medical education, sales performance, logistics, public health, and business development. I learned from more than five different bosses, and with most of them, I grew exponentially.

That is why what happened later hurt so much.

For years, I worked inside a global Big Pharma company. A company connected to health, science, prevention, treatment, and human wellbeing.

But when I experienced an emotional overload, I did not feel protected.

I felt removed.

I felt like the easier option was chosen: to let me go instead of helping me understand what was happening with my mental health.

At the time, I did not have the language I have today.

I did not know I had ADHD.

I did not understand my neurodivergence.

I only knew that my mind was running too fast, my emotions were overflowing, and I needed help.

Instead, I felt betrayed.

Not by everything I learned. Not by every person I worked with. Not by the entire experience.

But by the contradiction.

How can a company dedicated to health fail to see the mental health of one of its own?

Today, after receiving my diagnosis, I am not writing this from resentment.

I am writing this from clarity.

I miss the learning. I miss the challenge. I miss the exponential growth.

But after that experience, I choose to build my own path.

This project exists because mental health should not be treated as a weakness, a risk, or an inconvenience.

It should be part of how we build better people, better teams, better companies, and better futures.

Neurodivergent or not, everyone deserves to be understood before being discarded.