This article originally appeared in El Nuevo Día.
Juncos – Esteban Santos, Puerto Rican executive vice president of operations for Amgen, predicted a “bright” future for the multinational pharmaceutical company, both globally and for its operations in Puerto Rico. However, the executive emphasized that continued investment on the island will depend on Puerto Rico maintaining economic and political stability, as well as an environment that allows the company to plan for the long term.
“There will continue to be investments as long as we maintain a stable economic ecosystem in Puerto Rico, with a continuity of favorable economic development policies, as has been the case throughout these decades, giving us the certainty that investments in Puerto Rico are worthwhile. My opinion is that investments in Puerto Rico are worthwhile,” said the engineer by profession.
For Santos, being Puerto Rican and holding one of the most important positions in global pharmaceutical manufacturing represents a great responsibility and opportunity to serve as a reference for other young Puerto Ricans who aspire to make their way in the industrial sector.
From Caguas to becoming part of Amgen’s leadership
Today, the “jibarito from Caguas” – as he described himself – leads global manufacturing, quality, engineering, process development and supply chain processes at a global level.
“For me, that is the honor of having this role. It means being responsible for a positive and motivating force for our people in Puerto Rico,” Santos said in an interview with Negocios from the Amgen manufacturing plant in Juncos .
The pharmaceutical company’s facilities, located in the so-called “City of Valenciano”, began operating in 1992 and, since then, until 2024, it has deployed an approximate investment of $5 billion, employing 2,200 people and building about 1.7 million square feet.
In the past year, the company has announced nearly $1 billion in investment in Puerto Rico. For example, in 2025, AML revealed it would invest $650 million to increase drug production at the plant, integrate new technologies, and add approximately 750 jobs, including construction positions and new, highly skilled manufacturing roles.
In addition, the pharmaceutical company announced last month an additional investment of $300 million to boost production capacity in the country, improve state-of-the-art technologies, and ensure a reliable supply of medicines for patients.
“It has been a story of investment over the years and that story will continue as the business evolves, whether through new products or because we have to make investments and improve infrastructure or new technologies,” said the executive vice president of Operations at AML.
His role is crucial in the multinational company’s decision-making regarding physical investments, products, technology, and talent, he asserted.
Although he never imagined that he would occupy one of the most important positions in the biopharmaceutical sector, the Puerto Rican knew from the age of nine that he would dedicate himself to the field of science, technology or engineering.
Santos, born in Cayey and raised in Caguas, is a product of Puerto Rico’s public education system from his elementary school to his undergraduate studies in engineering, undertaken at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), in Mayagüez.
The engineer described his upbringing in “La Ciudad Criolla” as “very nice,” without luxuries, but with the example of a hardworking family that gave him an abundance of love and support. “My parents always instilled in me that the sky is the limit, you put in the effort, work hard, and good things will happen. They taught me that from a young age, and I believed it,” he said with a smile.
The leap that changed his trajectory
For Santos, one of the events that was decisive for his life occurred at age 23, when he risked leaving Puerto Rico with his family for Connecticut, a state where he also completed his Master of Business Administration degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Hartford.
“All I had was a piece of paper with a job offer as a recent graduate, telling me I was going to work as a development engineer at United Technologies in Connecticut,” he said. “At the end of the day, when you make a decision, you have to have the mindset that you have to make it work.”
After that first leap, the executive has moved eight times in response to his professional growth.
Before joining Amgen, Santos was general manager of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Cordis plant in Puerto Rico, and prior to that, he held various management positions in the industrial and transportation divisions of General Electric in Puerto Rico, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
He joined Amgen in 2007 as executive director of Manufacturing Technologies and has since held multiple leadership positions in Amgen’s manufacturing plant operations in the United States, Puerto Rico, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Singapore.
Throughout his career, he has received 12 patents for inventions in electronic systems that helped control building automation and electrical protection of power systems for industrial buildings.
Innovation as a response to the patent cliff
One of the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry globally is the so-called patent cliff, the moment when high-value drugs lose their patent protection and are exposed to competition from generic or biosimilar products.
For Santos, this scenario is part of the natural dynamics of the sector, but the answer lies in keeping the cycle of innovation and development of new treatments active.
“Yes, the patent aspect is very important for this industry. The context is that it requires billions of dollars to develop a drug and to generate income based on those investments, so patents are needed to protect that intellectual knowledge,” he explained.
The executive argued that the risk for companies arises when they fail to maintain a constant flow of research and development (R&D) that allows them to generate new therapeutic alternatives.
“It’s part of this industry, it’s part of what they are, how it affects companies if your research and development group fails to maintain that engine of innovation that generates new products and new medicines,” he noted.
In Amgen’s case, Santos stated that the strategy has been to continue allocating significant resources to R&D to sustain this cycle of innovation. The company, he indicated, invests approximately 20% of its revenue in this area.
“That’s not something you do in a year. It has to be consistent; it has to be done year after year. And companies that don’t make those investments, well then, they suffer, they have a higher probability of suffering the direct impact of a patent cliff,” he said.
Amgen has invested approximately $7.3 billion in R&D during 2025, supporting early-stage research, late-stage clinical programs, and commercial product support.
More medicines on the way
Santos added that Amgen currently has a portfolio of products in development that allows them to look to the future with optimism and anticipated the arrival of new drugs.
“In our case, we have a pipeline that helps us maintain the company’s growth,” he said.
When asked if the coming years would bring new drugs developed by the pharmaceutical company, Santos answered affirmatively.
“If you take my optimism about the future into account, the answer is yes,” he stated.
Amgen’s manufacturing plant in Juncos impacts more than 14 million patients and their families worldwide, manufacturing 29 of Amgen’s 40 commercial products, such as Epogen, Repatha, Aimovig, Neulasta, Neupogen, Prolia, Nplate, Enbrel, among others.
AML distributes medicines and biopharmaceutical products to more than 60 countries.
“Dreaming without action gets you nowhere.”
With nearly two decades at Amgen and a career that led him to global leadership positions, Santos also shared recommendations for young people aspiring to grow professionally.
His first piece of advice, he said, is to aim high, but to accompany those aspirations with discipline and action.
“You have to aim high. I think it’s good to aspire and then take action to achieve those aspirations. Dreaming is nice, but dreaming without action gets you nowhere. But dreaming with action can lead you to a very beautiful future,” he expressed.
In his opinion, constant preparation and performance in current responsibilities are key elements to opening new opportunities.
“You always have to do a good job in the responsibilities you have at the moment. It’s good to aspire to things in the future, but the most important thing for the next position is to do a spectacular job in the position you have today,” he stated.