Pharmaceuticals: US bigwigs give 9 billion boost, more incentives for research

A 9.2 billion boost to production, 180 million investments and sponsorship of half of the clinical trials carried out in Italia. This is the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry with US capital to the economic and health fabric of our country as photographed by a survey conducted by the Luiss Business School and promoted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy. The results of this commitment also translate into a growth in employment (+20% in the period 2015-2024), which today accounts for 16% of the total number of people employed in the sector.

"The economic impact generated on the territory," the report continues, "is estimated at around 6.3 billion, with an overall employment impact (direct, indirect and induced) of almost 22,600 employees. For Matteo Caroli, Associate Dean for Sustainability and Impact at Luiss Business School, "the data show an extremely dynamic sector of primary importance in the country".

According to the Luiss Business School survey, in 2024 the value of production of US pharmaceutical companies was 17% of the entire national pharmaceutical sector (9.2 billion, in fact), growing by almost 25% in the period 2015-2024 by activating more than 1,000 scientific collaborations in the country. Also 25% of the drugs assessed as innovative by Aifa are from the companies interviewed by Luiss Business School, including Abbvie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, Incyte, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Pfizer and Vertex of the AmCham Italy Strategic Group. 57% of the sample considers Italia an advantageous location, thanks to the availability of production technologies and resources with high quality skills, but for 71% there are structural criticalities that limit the country's attractiveness.

"The potential for further growth is significant," Caroli continues, "but the ability to attract new investments must necessarily be based on an organic and coordinated national strategy that intervenes on regulation, infrastructure, skills, data and incentives. In particular, it is necessary to relaunch research, in which the whole of Europe is losing ground, and not just Italia: the gap with the United States is widening sharply, reports the Luiss Business School, and investments in China are growing at a compound annual rate about five times higher than in Europe. While investments in the EU countries plus the UK and Switzerland were still around 40% of the total in 2009, as in the previous decade, by 2020 they had fallen to 31%, compared to an increase to 52% in the United States (from around 45%). China, which weighed in at around 2% at the beginning of last decade, is now up to 8%. 'We need to study rewarding mechanisms,' Caroli goes on to emphasise, 'so that academic research can be transformed into innovative applied research.

The 'important' role of companies with US capital is also underlined by the undersecretary for Health, Marcello Gemmato, recalling how 'Italia is the fourth-largest exporter in the world, thanks also to the sprint in pharmaceutical production, which in 2025 will reach 70 billion, 68 billion of which will be destined for foreign countries'. "Our commitment," he added, "is aimed at the Consolidated Text on Pharmaceuticals to regain independence on the production of the active ingredients that are used to prepare life-saving drugs, for which we are 80% dependent on India and China, but also to promote governance that is attractive to foreign capital and capable of regaining efficiency and promoting research.