The Italian life sciences industry is driven by two main forces: A competitive manufacturing power, with particularly large API capabilities that produce 9% of the world’s ingredients; and a diverse and fragmented biotech sector with excellent scientific credentials. While the former has been a major growth pillar of the last few decades, the latter could pave the way for a research-driven Italian industry for the decades to come.

The pandemic has been a catalytic event for Italy’s life sciences industries: Demand and supply have struggled to fall into balance, the M&A space witnessed record-setting transactions, and the healthcare system itself has become an investment priority at both national and European levels.

In this inaugural Italy Life Sciences report, we analyze how Italy can correct some of the structural issues that the pandemic exposed, and we address the role that digital health could play in a remote consultation and remote disease monitoring setup.

Section 2 is focused on Italy’s manufacturing base. We profile Italy’s homegrown pharma and we provide a framework to understand market access and pricing for foreign companies. We then look specifically at the strengths of Italy’s staple CDMO segment, as well as checking the socio-demographic dynamics in the non-prescription segment.

The final part of the book is dedicated to innovation exploring the drivers and inhibitors across the route from drug discovery to commercialization. We also examine the ideas stemming from innovative minds, especially when these minds collaborate. In our “Therapies and Diagnostics” article, we study the current state of both cancer diagnostics and treatment, as well as the unique context of orphan drugs.