What MedTech Misses About Latin America Market Entry

In this episode, Julio Martinez-Clark speaks with Guillaume Corpart, founder and CEO of Global Health Intelligence, about a problem that sits underneath almost every Latin America expansion plan: most companies still know the region in broad strokes, not at the hospital level.

That matters because Latin America is large enough to attract global MedTech attention, but uneven enough to punish lazy market entry. Corpart’s perspective is practical. He is not arguing for more enthusiasm about the region. He is arguing for better information, sharper segmentation, and a commercialization plan built for how hospitals actually buy.

Latin America is big, but it is not one market

Corpart makes the basic point first: scale is real. As he puts it, "Life Sciences in general ... is a huge market, a huge opportunity for any global manufacturer." But the size of the opportunity is exactly what makes simplification risky.

In the conversation, he describes a region of about 600 million people spread across 22 countries, each with its own regulatory structure, market-access issues, customs environment, and distribution network. Brazil may be the biggest prize, but it also comes with its own language and operating logic. Even companies that report the region as a single business unit still have to make country-by-country decisions.

That is the first useful lesson from the episode. A Latin America strategy is not just a map with many flags on it. It is a sequence of specific choices about where to start, which care settings matter, and what kind of commercial model a product can support. Corpart’s examples make clear that a company selling imaging equipment, implantables, or consumables should not expect one playbook to travel neatly across the region.

Good strategy starts with comparable hospital data

The strongest part of the episode is Corpart’s explanation of why country-level narratives are not enough. He notes that official information is uneven across markets. Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and to some extent Colombia have relatively stronger government data, while other markets are much thinner. Even where data exists, it is often not collected in the same way, which makes regional comparison difficult.

That is why his company built hospital-level datasets across 17 markets. HospiScope tracks hospital characteristics and infrastructure. SurgiScope focuses on procedure volumes by hospital. ShareScope looks at market size and market share for devices, equipment, and consumables.

The method matters as much as the product. Corpart says, "We call up about 10,000 hospitals every year to gather information on data and on infrastructure." That detail explains the commercial value of the datasets. A manufacturer trying to understand propensity to buy an MRI, the likely fit for e-commerce spare parts, or the right first market for a new device needs more than a distributor’s impression. It needs comparable inputs.

A concrete takeaway here is that regional planning should begin with hospital segmentation, not just national market size. Corpart highlights how average hospital size can vary sharply by market and sector, which changes purchasing power, investment capacity, and adoption speed. That kind of difference can matter more than headline GDP or population figures.

Distributors can open doors, but they can also narrow your view

Another theme worth carrying into the full episode is Corpart’s view of information asymmetry. MedTech companies often rely heavily on distributors in Latin America, and he is clear that this creates blind spots.

Distributors may know their accounts well, but they usually do not give manufacturers a complete picture of the market. Their incentives are not always identical to the manufacturer’s. That becomes a problem when strategy is built on a handful of conversations rather than a broad base of evidence.

Corpart argues that the industry is moving away from intuition-only planning. "More and more we're talking about team collaborations and people making fact based decisions in collaboration with one another." In practice, that means using independent market intelligence to validate what local partners say, challenge assumptions, and set better goals.

He also draws an important contrast between pharma and MedTech. Pharmaceutical companies, in his telling, invested earlier in market intelligence because the stakes and development cycles demanded it. Medical device companies, with faster product cycles and technology-like iteration, have historically been less mature in this area. That gap is closing, and the episode helps explain why it has to.

The next opportunity is not just expansion. It is fit.

Corpart does not present Latin America as a waiting room for products designed elsewhere. He suggests something more demanding: companies may need to adapt the product, the financing model, or the route to market.

His reasoning is straightforward. Many hospitals in emerging markets are smaller and less able to absorb capital-intensive equipment. That changes what can be sold, how it can be sold, and how quickly it can spread. In that environment, better market entry may come from a modified technology, a different purchasing model, or a sharper focus on specific care settings.

He also points to demand drivers that will keep pressure on health systems across the region: aging populations, obesity, and the need for higher productivity. His productivity point is especially useful. Better healthcare delivery is not only a cost issue. It also affects whether people can get care quickly and return to work sooner.

That long-term framing leads to his clearest advice for executives: "Latin America is a very large opportunity, but it's an opportunity that has to be approached carefully." In other words, the region rewards commitment, but only when commitment is paired with evidence and patience.

Listen to the full episode

If you work in MedTech strategy, commercial planning, or regional expansion, this conversation is worth your time because it gets specific about how market intelligence changes decisions. You can listen to the full discussion with Guillaume Corpart on the episode page.

About Global Trial Accelerators™

Global Trial Accelerators™ is the podcast for MedTech, Biopharma and Radiopharma founders navigating first-in-human clinical trials. It is hosted by Jesús E. Moreno and produced by bioaccess®, a CRO purpose-built for first-in-human trials across the Americas.