He was born on January 1, 1944. He is the founder, CEO and, together with his wife, biochemist Silvia Gold, the sole shareholder of Grupo Insud, a business group with presence in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agroforestry, cinema, nature and design.
Biographical background and business career
Hugo Sigman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires and graduated in 1969 as Doctor of Medicine, and graduated from the School of Social Psychology directed by Dr. Pichon Riviére.
In 1970, he joined the Psychiatry Department of the Policlínico de Lanús as a Resident, under the direction of Professor Mauricio Goldenberg. He continued his career, first as Chief Resident and later as founder and director of the Psychiatric Emergency Unit in the same hospital. In 1976, he moved to Spain, where he worked in the Psychiatry Department of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona.
At that time, he began his business career and became 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 Grupo Insud.
In the 1980s, Hugo Sigman and his family moved back to Argentina, where he expanded his existing businesses and developed new areas of work.
Hugo Sigman’s professional career is mainly based in the Human Sciences, where, through Insud Pharma (also known as Grupo Insud), he has developed 3 companies:
Chemo: a company that produces Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and Finished Dosage Forms (FDF) for 1,200 pharmaceutical companies around the world, with 15 R&D and manufacturing centers.
Exeltis: a company offering women’s health products in more than 40 countries.
mAbxience: a biotechnology company created in 2008, which produces biosimilar drugs.
In 2011, Hugo Sigman founded, together with other renowned biotechnology companies, the Cámara Argentina de Biotecnología (Argentine Chamber of Biotechnology), with the aim of strengthening public-private collaboration policies in biotechnology and fostering 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 established with institutions such as the University of Buenos Aires, the National University of Quilmes, the National University of San Martín, the Roffo and Garrahan hospitals, the National Academy of Medicine and several foreign universities.
Around 250 researchers work in partnerships supported by the Group, conducting basic and applied research; 100 of them are dedicated to the development of products for the treatment of cancer.
Agribusiness
In 1998, he began agricultural and forestry activities in different parts of Argentina, focused on genetic improvement and sustainable production, with the companies Garruchos (dedicated to agriculture and livestock), Pomera (ranked as the leading forestry company with Argentine capital), and Cabaña Los Murmullos, a leading cattle 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 crops resistant to wind and soil salinity, and has licensed its products to the United States, France and India.
In Argentina’s veterinary industry, Grupo Insud is partnered with Biogénesis Bagó, a world leader in the production of vaccines for animals, and the only company authorized by the Chinese government to build a plant in that country.
In 2019 he received the Premio Trayectoria (Career Award) from the Rural supplement of the newspaper Clarín during the 133rd Exposición Rural.