There was a time when I didn't quite understand how a Brazilian pharmaceutical company could be present in almost 90% of the country's pharmacies.

Then I started following João Adibe Marques's story, and everything made a lot more sense.

The guy is the president of Grupo Cimed, but he's not the type of executive who stays only in theory.
João Adibe Marques literally grew up inside the business — started at 15 helping his father in the laboratory.
His grandfather had founded a laboratory in the 1950s, so pharmaceuticals have been in the family's DNA from the very beginning.
But here’s the key difference: while many in the industry follow a more traditional path, he transformed Cimed into something much closer to the end consumer.

The company was officially founded in 1977, through a merger of laboratories.
But the big move happened when João Adibe Marques took leadership and decided that Cimed wouldn't just be another laboratory — it would be the pharmaceutical company for the average Brazilian.
Affordable generics, vitamins, supplements.
Numbers speak for themselves: over 600 products, 5,000 employees, presence in 60,000 points of sale.

The growth was truly accelerated.
In 2018, revenue surpassed R$ 1 billion.
Then came 2020, and the pandemic boosted everything — demand for vitamins and immunity shot up, revenue grew 35%, and Cimed’s gross revenue reached R$ 2 billion.
This solidified the company as one of the four largest in Brazil.

What I find most striking about João Adibe Marques is how he managed to keep the company 100% Brazilian and family-controlled in such a highly competitive sector.
While many sell to foreign funds, he keeps the structure intact.

But he doesn’t stop there.
In recent years, he began investing heavily in innovation — R$ 300 million in research, including experiments on the International Space Station.
He aims to reposition Cimed not as a traditional pharmaceutical but as a biotech.
It’s ambitious, but it reflects a clear long-term vision.

Outside the corporate world, João Adibe Marques has also built a strong presence in sports — sponsoring football, volleyball, motorsports.
On social media, he shares a lot about his worldview, always with the hashtag #FlyNow.
In 2015, he was included among Latin America’s 500 most influential people.

What’s clear is that João Adibe Marques represents a type of entrepreneur who combines family origins, practical execution, and market insight.
It’s not just technological innovation that drives Cimed — operational discipline, brand positioning, and well-thought-out national reach.
All of this in a sector that is highly competitive and dominated by large international players.