Made in Italy pharmaceuticals win over tariffs: Tuscany, Abruzzo and Lazio among the export queens

Among the top destinations of our pill exports are Usa (15.4 billion and +54% growth) where the inventory effect and intra-group trade between multinationals operating in Italia, Switzerland (9.4 billion) and Belgium (7.4 billion) also play a role.

"Italy's record pharmaceutical export results in 2025 confirm the solidity of our sector, even in a complex global context. The positive figure benefited in part from the inventory effect generated at the beginning of the year, with the announcement of possible tariffs. But it would be reductive to explain this success only in this way.

The real driving force is the value of our nation's industrial system: research, manufacturing quality, skills and innovation capacity,' emphasises the President of Farmindustria Marcello Cattani.

The exploit of Tuscany, which alone brings in almost 11 billion more in exports, is largely explained by the incredible numbers put in by the Sesto Fiorentino plant of Eli Lilly where its anti-diabetes and obesity drug Mounjaro, destined mainly for the American and Chinese markets, is produced.

An increase that is very concentrated on a single company and can therefore also change rapidly, as shown by the negative sign of exports from the Marches (-32%) where Pfizer produces the Paxlovid antiviral at its plant in Ascoli Piceno, which exploded during the Covid with China as its main destination and has now collapsed.

Growth in Abruzzo - 2 billion in exports - benefits in particular from the Aquilan district with big names such as Dompé, Menarini and Sanofi, just as in Lazio (as much as 18 billion) is driven by the production poles of Latina and Frosinone (including Anagni), while in Campania (8 billion) is running thanks to companies such as Novartis, Ibsa and several small ones.

These growths cannot, of course, be unaffected in the short term by what is happening in the world: from the crisis in the Gulf from where precious raw materials for various drugs arrive, with the risk of bringing some production to its knees, to the Trump effect, given that the US president - after having waived the maxi tariffs on drugs - is now focusing on the price battle that he wants to lower for American patients to the detriment of European ones (see other article below).

But apart from the geopolitical tsunami of the moment, there are also medium to long term trends that weigh heavily, starting with Italia's increasingly large exposure to imports of raw materials and active ingredients for pharmaceuticals:

2025 figures say that we have gone from 5.3 billion 'basic pharmaceutical products' imported in 2020 to 25.4 billion last year (as opposed to 3 billion exported), with the USA and China taking the lion's share in supplying us with almost 19 billion. Numbers, these, that should give us pause for thought.

"We will work in cooperation with the government to ensure that this growth remains sustainable in an increasingly fierce global competition and a complex environment that is already leading to cost increases.

Our companies have responded swiftly to international demand, maintaining very high standards, but in order to continue growing in 2026, it will be crucial to press ahead with governance reform, with the single text on pharmaceuticals, to respond positively to global challenges and to the effects of the 'Most Favoured Nation' clause introduced by the US administration,' Cattani concludes.