Attention Senators Dorgan and Vitter: Here’s some info from a recent AP story that you might find interesting …
MEXICO CITY. In just eight years Farmacias Similares, or Similar Pharmacies, has grown from a single store in Mexico City to 3,329 across Mexico and is spreading throughout Central America as well as Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. A pharmacy opened in the Peruvian capital of Lima on July 29. Colombia is next. And it’s made Victor Gonzalez a rich man.
His catchy advertising — a cartoon doctor and an army of scantily clad models — has made 58-year-old Gonzalez a household name. His slogan is “The Same, Only Cheaper.”
Now the recovering alcoholic and self-professed womanizer wants to translate his popularity into a run for president, though the law is against him, as is most conventional wisdom.
Gonzalez refuses to divulge his net worth, joking in an interview, “If I tell you, they’ll come kidnap me.” But his eight companies, manufacturing, transporting or selling pharmaceuticals, generated around $400 million in sales last year. His group claims to control one-quarter of Mexico’s $9 billion drug industry.
