Can you introduce Lisapharma, highlighting some recent milestones?

Lisapharma is a pharmaceutical company established in 1925 and located in Italy’s Como area. We are specialized in the development, manufacturing and marketing of primarily injectable products, including vials and ampoules. Our portfolio is marketed in over 50 countries across the globe. In addition, we work as a subcontractor for both for Italian companies and MNCs

In November 2019, Lisapharma was sold from the Italian fund Arcadia to the Chinese API manufacturing company Sito Bio. This acquisition entailed a change of management at the beginning of 2020, starting with the CEO, COO, and quality and financial managers. The Covid-19 pandemic has made the integration process rather difficult. However, this acquisition has enabled us to speed up the registration process for our products in the Chinese market and we expect that this partnership will increase Lisapharma’s export volumes and turnover in the near future.

Can you familiarize our audience with your product and service offer?

Lisapharma has two separate business units. The first unit is the commercial one, which is dedicated to sell our own products, in particular Lysamethile (Metilprendilosone), Lisatriam (Triamcinolone), Lysathione (Glutathione Sodium), Ibobrufene Lisine, Acurmil, Calcitonina, Amikacina and Sucralfate. The second unit is dedicated to contract manufacturing, in which we develop and manufacture products among which sterile injectable, semisolids, liquid non-steriles and medical devices for our own customers.

What trends are you observing for the CMO part of the business?

Whereas all around the world demand for coronavirus-related treatments has increased, all other products and therapies saw a significant drop. Therefore, the CMO part of our business suffered a slight decline, and it has just only started to recover in the last few months. The CMO business has also been challenged due to national border and movement restrictions, because we depend on other countries to source raw materials used in injectables. To manage this scenario it’s very important to have a really flexible manufacturing and technical organization.

Today, most of our CMO customers are located in the Far East and Europe. We are also in the final stage of obtaining the FDA authorization for our manufacturing site to market our products in the US. We expect to reach this target before the end of 2021.

How do you see recovery in the retail and hospital markets?

In the past year, sales for our retail products plummeted, both in Italy and other European countries, as people limited their visits to pharmacies so demand for products like gels or sprays decreased substantially. We believe that the situation for our retail products will slowly recover, but it will take another year or more to return to pre-Covid levels. In terms of hospital products, our hope is to return to the 2019 market and to go back to supplying our products in hospitals for non-Covid related treatments.

What are your near-term priorities?

Our main goal is to increase the sales of our products in Asia, particularly in China. Today, it is very challenging to present medium- to-long-term business plans due to the ever-changing conditions, so the key word for Lisapharma is flexibility; we must constantly adapt to regulatory changes, especially related to the supply of raw materials.

Do you have a final message to share with our international audience?

The approval process for new products in Italy is particularly slow, taking between 2-3 years to be complete; this slow approval delays the launch of new products and inadvertently affects pharma companies. The pandemic sped up this process, especially in March and April 2020 thanks to the positive reaction from pharmaceutical companies, but one year later, we see the same pre-pandemic sluggish process. My message is that the pandemic proved we can do things better, and this is the lesson that should pave the way for the future of pharma in Italy and elsewhere.