Hugo Sigman

Hugo Sigman (born 1st january 1944) is the founder, CEO and –jointly with his wife, Biochemist Silvia Gold— the only shareholder of Grupo Insud, a business group with presence in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agroforestry, cinema, nature and design.

Hugo Sigman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he studied medicine at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and graduated in 1969 as Medical Doctor, and graduated from the Social Psychology School led by Dr. Pichon Riviére.

In 1970, he joined as Resident the Psychiatry Service of Policlínico Lanús, directed by Professor Mauricio Goldenberg. He continued his career, first as Chief of Residents, and then as founder and director of the Psychiatric Emergency Unit at the same hospital. In 1976, he moved to Spain, where he worked at the Psychiatry Service of Hospital Clínico de Barcelona.

At that time, he started his entrepreneurial career and got involved in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1978, with his wife, Silvia Gold, he founded Chemo Group, a chemical-pharmaceutical company, and the first company of Insud Group.

In the 1980s, Hugo Sigman and his family moved back to Argentina, where he developed his existing businesses and developed new work areas.

Hugo Sigman's professional career relies especially on Human Sciences, where, through Insud Pharma (also known as Insud Group), he has developed 3 companies:

• Chemo: a company that produces active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished dosage forms (FDFs) to 1,200 pharmaceutical companies around the world, with 15 manufacturing R&D centers
• Exeltis: a company that offers female health products in more than 40 countries
• mAbxience: a biotech company created in 2008, which produces biosimilar medicines

In 2011, Hugo Sigman founded, together with other renowned biotechnology companies, the Argentine Chamber of Biotechnology, with the aim of strengthening the public-private collaboration policy in biotechnology and encourage its development in the region.

The Public-Private Consortium for Research and Development of Innovative Oncology Therapies, developed the first therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer, Racotumomab (Vaxira), introduced in 2013.

Inspired by that model, other partnerships were made with institutions like Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Roffo and Garrahan Hospitals, Academia Nacional de Medicina, and several foreign universities.

Approximately 250 researchers work at the partnerships supported by the Group, doing basic and applied research; 100 of them are dedicated to the development of products for treating cancer.

In 1998, he started agricultural and forestry activities in different locations of Argentina, focused on genetic improvement and sustainable production, with companies Garruchos, devoted to farming and cattle-raising; Pomera, ranked as the top Argentine-capital forestry company; and Cabaña Los Murmullos, a leading cattle breeding ranch.

Sigman is also a shareholder of Bioceres, an Argentine biotechnology company focused on agricultural production. This company developed a gene that enables the production of wheat, corn and soybean resistant to draughts and soil salinity, and has licensed its products to the USA, France and India.

In Argentina's veterinary industry, Grupo Insud partners Biogénesis Bagó, a world-class company animals vaccine production leader, (the only one) authorized by the government of China to build a plant in that country.

In 2019 he received the Trajectory Award of the Rural supplement of the Clarin newspaper during the 133rd Rural Exhibition.

Through Grupo Insud, Hugo Sigman participates in cultural companies in Argentina and Spain such as:

• Capital intellectual, which includes a line of publications in Spain under the publishing brand Clave Intellectual
• Le Monde Diplomatique´s Southern Cone edition
• The Latin American version of prestigious The New York Review of Books
• K&S Films a filmmaking company called K&S after his founders Oscar Kramer and Hugo Sigman, had produced films relevant to the Argentine and international scene with titles such as:
  • Kamchatka
  • El perro
  • The Last Elvis
  • Seventh Floor
  • Wild Tales.

Wild Tales

Produced by Hugo Sigman for Kramer& Sigman Films and by El Deseo (Pedro Almodóvar and Agustín Almodóvar ’s production company), Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes) was directed by Damián Szifron, starring Ricardo Darín, Julieta Zylberberg, Rita Cortese; Darío Grandinetti; Érica Rivas; Oscar Martínez and Leonardo Sbaraglia. Co-produced by Telefé and Corner, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Wild Tales exceeded 1 million tickets sold in its first ten days of screening.

An art and culture enthusiast, between 2010 and 2013, Hugo Sigman was a member of the Advisory Council of the [[National Fine Arts Museum of Argentina]], and is currently a member of the Board of Patronage of Museo Reina Sofía, in Madrid, Spain. Additionally, the venue of Grupo INSUD in Buenos Aires (the traditional Díaz Vélez Palace), built in 1907 and recently restored, has won several architectural awards and has been declared a protected heritage site of Buenos Aires City.

Hugo Sigman and his wife created the Mundo Sano Foundation. in Argentina, Spain and Ethiopia, with the vision to transform the reality of populations affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) including Chagas, dengue and soil-transmitted helminths.

• In 2008, he received the Merit Diploma at the Konex Awards, in the "Innovative Entrepreneurs" category.
• In 2009, Sigman took part in the 15th Conference of the Argentine Industrial Union, and was guest speaker representing Argentina at Harvard and Columbia Universities.
• In 2011, jointly with Silvia Gold, he received an award from Asociación de Dirigentes de Empresa (ADE) in the "Agroindustry" category.
• In September 2011, Sigman was guest speaker at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held in Geneva, Switzerland. His lecture was about the manufacturing of vaccines and biotechnologicals in Argentina. The Sinergium Biotech model of integration for the production of vaccines and biotech products involves technology transfer, export potential and the creation of 320 jobs, said Sigman.
• In 2012, he was a speaker at the Global Investment Forum, organized by the United Nations in Qatar. He presented the state-of-the-art productive investment model based on partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies and public entities.
• In 2013, at the 11th International Symposium on AIDS, organized by Fundación Huésped, he was recognized for the achievements of the Research, Development and Innovation Consortium presented by his companies.
• In 2013, the Endeavor Foundation named him the "Model Entrepreneur" for his values and track record.
• In 2015, Hugo Sigman received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, from EY consulting firm (Ernst & Young) in Argentina.
• In 2018, he received his 2nd Merit Diploma at the Konex Awards, this time in the "Industry Entrepreneurs" category.