"Italy becomes the leading producer of medicines in Europe, ahead of Germany"

Edoardo Secchi is an entrepreneur, CEO of Italy-France Group and founder of Club France-Italie, an organization dedicated to cooperation between France and Italy.

The Italian pharmaceutical industry is a very technologically advanced sector and occupies the leading position at European level.

The sector has 66,500 employees, 81% of whom are under 35 years old.

And this sector is recruiting: over the past two years, it has exceeded + 1.3% of the manufacturing average, with 4.5% more hires per year.

Adding the workers employed by the supply chain (those working in distribution and pharmacies) adds up to approximately 250,000 jobs.

The positive dynamics of the Italian pharmaceutical industry derives from its specializations acquired in particular in biotechnologies.

The transalpine country overtook Germany and became number one in Europe with a production of 33 billion euros, including 25 billion of exports, and a trade balance of 4 billion.

The sector has recorded the largest increase in exports of pharmaceuticals within EU countries over the past ten years (107% overall versus 74%).

An export volume which increased fifteen-fold between 1991 and 2019. Its main customers are the United States (+ 22.3%), Germany (+ 6.8%), France (+ 7.5 %), Belgium (+ 20.2%) and Turkey (+ 36.6%).

A real success when you remember that a few years ago, the country was only an importer.

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The positive dynamics of the Italian pharmaceutical industry derives from its specializations acquired in particular in biotechnologies (three advanced therapies out of six authorized in Europe come from Italian research and development), research on rare diseases (25% of clinical studies Italian), vaccines, blood products, orphan drugs and advanced therapies.

The crisis linked to the Covid19 pandemic has further pushed national companies to increase their investments in R&D.

In the field of medical technology (the most active technological sector ever seen within the European Patent Office) Italian inventors filed 6% more patent applications than in 2019, significantly exceeding the average increase 2.6% European.

In addition, the Lazio region has signed an agreement for the production of the Russian Sputnik vaccine, in the test phase pending the green light from the EMA.

R&D employs 6,400 people, more than half of whom are women.

With 3 billion invested and a direct and indirect added value of 17.5 billion euros, the pharmaceutical industry is third in Italy among the manufacturing sectors for investments in R&D.

The Lazio region, epicenter of the Italian pharmaceutical industry

The international visibility of the Italian pharmaceutical industry is linked to the very important role that the Lazio region plays.

Its industrial district based in the south of Rome is characterized by intense innovative activity, a well-established production base and a large number of companies, which account for 15.4% of the national total and represent 61.8% of the companies in the operating sector. in central Italy.

Almost half of Italian exports to the world come from Lazio.

For several years now, the district has been at the center of the interests of different countries thanks to its large number of international companies present, but also thanks to the role played by Rome and its very high-level research and development center.

First of all, let us quote the Spallanzani Institute in Rome, national excellence for invective diseases: it is here that the Covid19 was isolated in early 2020.

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Then, the development of the Astra Zeneca vaccine, produced by this Oxford laboratory in partnership with the IRBM company of Pomezia (City south of Rome), specializing in the treatment of weakened adenoviruses intended to be used as vectors to introduce viral proteins. in the body capable of stimulating the immune response.

In addition, the Lazio region has signed an agreement for the production of the Russian Sputnik vaccine, in the test phase pending the green light from the EMA.

Thanks to Takis, the Lazio region has become the epicenter of production, exportation and national advancement in the production of vaccines and medicines.

Finally, the region has already started the development of a vaccine discovered by the company Takis, a young Italian startup based south of Rome.

Takis, led by CEO and Scientific Director Luigi Aurisicchio, aims to test his DNA-based vaccine in the fall.

The small company, which has 25 employees and reported sales of $ 2.2 million in 2018, was founded in 2009 by a group of biologists and researchers from the research and development division of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Takis began its activity in the field of cancer vaccine and therapy development, thanks to the experience of its founders in gene therapy and oncology.

Before focusing its efforts on Covid-19, the company was negotiating with regulators to begin clinical trials for a personalized cancer vaccine - based on DNA and RNA extracted from a single patient's tumor - which would prevent the identified tumor from coming back.

Thanks to Takis and all of its entrepreneurial fabric, the Lazio region has become the epicenter of production, exportation and national advancement in the production of vaccines and medicines.

Italy has been able to undertake its development with the objective of becoming a major international player in the sector and gaining its medical sovereignty.

The results obtained so far are proof of its capacity for growth and represent a great opportunity for its European partners.