Ana María Karachón C.
Senior Strategic Advisor – Public Affairs & Health Policy
Executive Summary
Senior public affairs and health policy architect with nearly 30 years of experience navigating complex regulatory, institutional, and political environments across Latin America. Recognized for translating strategy into policy adoption, stakeholder alignment, and institutional legitimacy, enabling sustainable implementation of health solutions at scale.
Thera Contribution
As Public Affairs & Policy Architect at Thera Health Policy & Access, Ana María anchors the firm’s ability to convert strategic design into real-world policy adoption and institutional acceptance.
She plays a central role in bridging the gap between Design → Deliver, ensuring that policy, access, and regulatory strategies are not only technically sound, but also:
- Politically viable
- Institutionally aligned
- Adopted by key stakeholders
Her contribution reinforces Thera’s Do Tank capability, enabling strategies to be implemented within complex public-sector environments and sustained over time.
Executive Profile
Ana María Karachón is a senior health policy and public affairs leader with nearly three decades of experience at the intersection of regulatory science, public policy, corporate affairs, and market access.
She is widely recognized for her ability to navigate and align complex institutional ecosystems across Latin America—particularly in highly regulated markets—ensuring that private-sector innovation is successfully embedded within public health systems.
Her leadership is defined by a “360-degree perspective” across the pharmaceutical lifecycle, encompassing:
- Regulatory approval and compliance
- Public policy and government relations
- Market access and reimbursement dynamics
- Corporate affairs and institutional positioning
This integrated perspective allows her to design and execute strategies that are not only technically robust, but also politically executable and institutionally durable.
Areas of Strategic Impact
Public Affairs & Policy Alignment
Aligns private innovation with public health priorities, ensuring that complex health strategies are positioned for adoption, scalability, and long-term policy integration.
Government & Stakeholder Orchestration
Acts as a key bridge across industry, regulators, and government institutions, building consensus and trust to enable implementation in multi-stakeholder environments.
Regulatory Strategy & Market Access
Deep expertise in regulatory pathways and policy frameworks, enabling accelerated access and sustainable positioning of innovative portfolios.
Corporate Affairs & Institutional Reputation
Designs integrated ESG, stakeholder engagement, and communication strategies that strengthen institutional credibility and social legitimacy.
Regional Execution Leadership
Extensive experience managing multi-country clusters, ensuring that strategies are adapted to diverse regulatory, political, and institutional realities across LATAM.
Professional Background
Ana María brings extensive leadership experience across global pharmaceutical organizations.
At Pfizer, she spent over 14 years in senior leadership roles, including:
- Policy & Public Affairs Director – Andean Cluster (Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia)
- Corporate Affairs Director
- Regulatory Head for South America clusters
In these roles, she led high-stakes public affairs, regulatory, and stakeholder engagement strategies for innovative health portfolios across multiple countries.
Earlier in her career, she built a strong technical and operational foundation at Bayer, where she served as:
- Regulatory Affairs Country Head
- Quality Assurance Head
This early experience provided the scientific and regulatory depth that underpins her current strategic perspective. [Perfiles E…mayo 2026 | Word]
Professional Impact & Leadership
Throughout her career, Ana María has:
- Led complex policy engagement strategies in highly regulated environments
- Built bridges between government, regulators, and industry stakeholders
- Secured institutional alignment for innovative health portfolios
- Strengthened public trust and credibility in multi-stakeholder systems
Her work consistently enables organizations to move from strategy to actual policy adoption and system-level impact.
Academic & Professional Credentials
- Pharmaceutical Chemist – Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
- Postgraduate Diploma in Health Public Policy – Universidad del Desarrollo
- Postgraduate Diploma in Health Technology Assessment (HTA/ETESA) – Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
- Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration – Universidad de Chile
