Interview: Leonardo Vingiani, Italian Association for Biotechnology
Set up in October 1986 within the Italian Federation of the Chemical Industry (Federchimica), Assobiotec is the Italian Association for the Development of Biotechnology, representing companies and technology parks operating in Italy and active across a range of biotech-related fields including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, agro-food, chemicals, environment, processing and equipment.
Italy was a late comer to the biotech movement, admits the head of the association, Leonardo Vingiani, yet the country’s competitive international positioning is much stronger than usually believed, and the national industry has quickly caught up with other regions.
Since 2001 the Italian biotech companies have almost tripled in number, becoming more and more productive and open to the global market. Since 2005 five Italian biotech companies have been listed on leading stock exchanges, he points out, and Italian companies are developing an exceptionally strong portfolio of late stage candidates.
The data highlighted by the report Biotechnology in Italy 2008; Strategic and Financial Analysis, by Blossom Assobiotec, caught the attention of life science executives, he said, showing 228 companies with research and development activities generating EUR 4.8 billion in revenues, attracting EUR 1,3 billion in capital investments in 2006 and employing over 26,000 people, of which 6,652 are engaged in R&D.
Following is a recent interview with Assobiotec director Leonardo Vingiani, courtesy of FocusReports in partnership with Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine.
Biotechnologies have a significant role to play bringing Italy towards a more knowledge based economy. What is the economic contribution of the sector today?
Vingiani: According to the last Blossom Associati-Assobiotec report dedicated to biotechnologies in Italy, the sector’s turnover reaches approximately EUR 5 billion and represents 0,6% of the global Italian turnover. Our biotech market is still very young, with more than 50% of the companies created in the last few years, but it is growing faster and faster, getting stronger and stronger. Looking at the pipeline, Italy now has 84 products in clinical phase. Such a result is impressive compared to the state of the industry two years ago, with only 30 products in the pipeline.
Italy’s very young biotech sector experienced an impressive 50% growth since 2001. What will be the strategy in order to maintain such a level of growth?
Vingiani: In order to keep growing, it is essential for Italian entrepreneurs to improve their ability to translate knowledge into business, and research into companies. Such a tradition is lacking in Italy, despite the good quality of research in the country, and we need to work on this issue.
Another important topic is related to the need for more business angels and venture capitals to sustain the biotech sector. Italy’s financial scheme includes some really good investors for traditional technologies, but regarding innovative technologies there has not been an efficient strategy to foster innovation and get financial capital.
So there is an opportunity for big countries such as Canada and USA, as well as European countries like UK, Germany and France. These markets have a lot of specialized investors but are lacking of good projects to finance at the moment. Italy can offer them good projects to finance.
What makes Italy a significant market to attract international investment?
Vingiani: Italy’s first competitive advantage lies in its extensive and solid research, which deserves to be translated into business.
Furthermore, the Italian environment offers a very good cost/effectiveness ratio. Italian researchers earn less than in Northern Europe and the USA and therefore, it appears profitable to invest in the country on Italian researchers, and bet on Italian research.
Related Posts
No related posts.