Building Italy’s Biotech Future: How New Initiatives Are Breaking Down Growth Barriers

“We have strong scientific foundations and manufacturing excellence. Now we’re creating the ecosystem to help biotechs scale and compete globally,” says Federico Vigano, Board Member of Assobiotec.

Federico Vigano, Country Manager for Vertex in Italy and Greece, brings extensive pharmaceutical leadership experience from roles at AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim and GSK. As a board member of Assobiotec, the Italian Association for the Development of Biotechnology representing over 100 companies and research institutes, he coordinates therapeutic areas including access, orphan drugs, advanced therapies, and clinical research.

In the latest PharmaSource podcast episode, Federico outlines Italy’s ambitious plans to leverage its manufacturing heritage while addressing key barriers to help biotech companies scale from research excellence to commercial success.

Manufacturing Heritage and Scientific Excellence

Italy stands as one of Europe’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers with over €30 billion in exports, driven by established companies like Angelini, Alfa Sigma, Menarini, and Chiesi. “Historically, Italy has been one of the biggest producers in Europe and is still a major producer in the pharmaceutical world,” Federico explains. This manufacturing expertise provides a strong foundation for growth in biotechnology.

The Italian biotech sector shows significant promise in research output. “If we compare the number of companies, patents registered, and scientific publications, these numbers are quite high,” Federico notes. While 72% of biotech companies are currently micro-companies, new initiatives are emerging to help them scale.

“We’ve drawn what we call a ‘biotech journey’ that identifies all the pain points companies face when trying to translate knowledge into something that can be industrialised,” Federico shares. “Everything starts from the university – having the right people, which I think we’re moving in the right direction on, then research funding, but the most difficult parts are tech transfer and startup creation.”

Breaking Down Barriers to Growth

Two critical barriers are being addressed through new initiatives.

“The first is knowledge transfer from universities to industry,” Federico explains. “The rules haven’t fully adapted to facilitate this transfer of technology from pure knowledge to industry. We’re working with authorities to make this easier.”

“The second point is capital markets,” he continues. “We really struggle in having significant players in this market, both public and private. However, things are improving significantly – we recently had a public fund from CDP focusing on biotech, and we have another fund from AIR. The institutions are moving in the right direction to increase access to capital.”

Building Advanced Manufacturing Capabilities

While Italy excels in traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing, there’s work to be done in advanced therapy production. “If we talk about advanced therapies or cell therapies, Italy is currently lagging behind other European countries,” Federico notes. “In my knowledge, there is no production lab in Italy at this stage for gene or cell therapies. This is something we need to address, and I think the European Biotech Act can help Italy advance in the right direction.”

Life science parks such as The Milano Innovation District (MIND) in Milan, play a crucial role in bridging research and industry. “The parks were established exactly with this aim – to create a link between research and the possibility of getting funds and using this research to enter the industry market,” Federico explains. “There is one in Milan that is working pretty well. But to make it as big as we need, there is still work to be done.”

2025 Strategic Priorities

Assobiotec is focusing on two key initiatives for 2025 to accelerate sector growth. “We have two active tables – one is the internationalisation of Italian biotech, led by colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Federico shares.

“The second is making Italy competitive at the European level for clinical research. Making Italian biotechs competitive at an international level and making Italy really competitive at the European level for clinical research are the two topics we want to work on this year.”

As a founding member of EuropaBio, Assobiotec maintains strong collaboration at the European level.

“Our position is always two-way communication,” Federico notes. “We want to influence EuropaBio’s strategy in a positive way, incorporating the issues we have in Italy. Then we use what they produce to influence our ecosystem and push our authorities to be more active in biotech.”

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