"Chemist-pharmaceutical from Pisa: world target for Farmigea branded products"
un growing turnover of 36% in the last 6 years and an export boom equal to +54%. In line with the general one of the pharmaceutical sector, which recorded a +2% in the first 6 months of 2014. These are the results obtained by an all-Italian company.
Not a Big Pharma, but a powerful reality (36 million vials produced every year) and with a long family tradition, based in Aprilia, in the province of Latina.
And a female guide for decades. «Starting in 1940, on the death of its founder Giovanni Lorenzini, the company passed under the direction of his daughter Loredana Lorenzini, my grandmother», Camilla Borghese Khevenhüller, today president and CEO of the Italian Biochemical Institute, tells Adnkronos Salute (Ibi) Giovanni Lorenzini.
A company «with a vocation for export since its birth in 1918 – says the number one of Ibi – and which over the years has built on this vocation a strong capacity for development and production, strengthening year after year the our core business, that of injectable penicillins. From the raw material to the finished product, we export to Europe, where we supply hospitals directly, and to other countries around the world where we have various commercial partners. These are products that have lost their patent protection, but still today they often represent the only therapeutic approach with classic antibiotics: it is difficult to find an effective alternative drug, which has the same, now low, price".
«Despite this - he specifies - we have managed to increase our turnover in the last 6 years of the 36%, growing from year to year. But to do this we had to continually invest in processes, in organization, increase our production to compensate for the decrease in price. Guaranteeing the quality that 'made in Italy' and our company represent all over the world». The Lazio company has also recently opened its doors to the university, «to supply our know-how in industrial, regulatory and quality production to spin-off projects».
Today, the company reserves the 75% of its own production for exports: «The internal market – underlines Borghese Khevenhüller – is too small and it cannot be denied that there are concrete difficulties in collecting payments: in Germany we are paid in 15 days, in Italy it even goes up to one-year payouts.
We sell injectable products that go above all to hospitals and at the moment in Italy we have a budget that 'tightens' us enough».
The "pink" management of the company is written in Ibi Lorenzini's DNA, but the CEO does not want to hear about the differences with the male management: "The attachment to the company is the same", he assures. "Rather, we need to focus on the concept of a management team, to have multiple visions and a global ability to interact between different knowledge".
Finally, the vision of the future: «We need stability, we must be sure that the rules do not change during a development project, which requires many years of checks and authorizations. In the last few years, however, we have not had such large cuts as in past years. We hope that this will continue, also because the items of health expenditure do not include only pharmaceuticals», he concludes.
"Chemist-pharmaceutical from Pisa: world target for Farmigea branded products"
September 19, 2014 – PISATODAY
The third phase of the internationalization project of the Farmigea group has begun, a historic Pisan chemical-pharmaceutical brand born in 1946 and specialized in the ophthalmological sector, which with exports achieves 15 million euros, equal to 40% of turnover. The partner in this new chapter of Farmigea's foreign expansion is Co.Mark, a temporary management services company in outsourcing for the internationalization of SMEs, to which the Tuscan company has entrusted in particular the macro-areas of Russia, the Baltic and Germany, where he had no direct experience.
«We entered foreign markets about fifteen years ago and in a strategic way only for about ten years» explains the CEO of Farmigea Mario Federighi. «In the beginning it was a patchy business: we went to those countries where we knew there was a demand for one of our products and where local legislation allowed us to. Given the barriers to entry into the EU, we worked with the markets facing the Mediterranean, mainly with the Maghreb area». After a second phase of expansion with third-party production of goods exported on a large scale, from Canada to Australia, the time has come for Farmigea to exploit the experience accumulated "on the job" to expand the areas of direct presence. «We have decided to start exporting our brand again, at this point expanding the range of action to the whole world. The objective is twofold: to consolidate the areas in which we are already present and to introduce Farmigea brand products in those markets in which we operated on behalf of third parties. And to do this we relied on Co.Mark».
Farmigea has chosen the formula of outsourced export consultancy to add operational capabilities to the commercial structure without charging the company with fixed costs. «In Co.Mark we have not only found a manager, but a network» adds Federighi. «The modus operandi is to network all the information in a large database from which managers can carry out selection activities. In short, a scouting ability that would absorb the company's time and resources dedicated mainly to sales».
Since the beginning of the collaboration with Co.Mark, exclusive distribution agreements have been stipulated and registration procedures started. "The research was aimed at selecting partners already present in ophthalmology or who had a network of drug sales representatives able to promote the products to specialists in the sector, as these are not over-the-counter items" explains Eva Lugnan, the Co.Mark export specialist who was entrusted with the task of internationalizing the Farmigea ophthalmological line. «The timescales for registering a medical device are long, therefore the first results in economic terms will be collected starting from 2016».
Farmigea is the example of a medium-sized company that does not decentralize, but expands abroad while maintaining research, production and jobs in Italy. «We are the typical Italian company born from a brilliant father and carried on for three generations now. We believe in human resources: we employ 250 employees, 80% of whom are women. The average age is 38 and the 40% of workers are university graduates» concludes Federighi.
the company
The Farmigea Group, made up of Farmigea Holding and its subsidiaries Farmigea, Oftagen and Oftagen Surgical represents an important Italian reality in the ophthalmological sector, the core business of the company which covers the 80% of the activity.
1946: year of foundation
250: the number of employees
15,000,000 euros: foreign turnover (40%)
Research and Development
The Company manages all phases of the drug development process, from research to production. It has a modern and efficient internal R&D laboratory which develops multi-channel projects with the aim of implementing the pharmaceutical methodologies in use. The direction of research is entrusted to the best experienced specialists in the sector and makes use of young and dynamic researchers who are mainly dedicated to highly innovative research, with the aim of combining excellence in the scientific field with industrial productivity.
Farmigea collaborates with universities and research centres, including the Universities of Pisa and Siena and the CNR of Pisa.
Co.Mark was born in Bergamo in 1998 as a professional consultancy firm in the field of temporary management services for the search for customers and the creation of commercial networks abroad, applying a model devised by its founder Massimo Lentsch for measuring and sharing with the client company of the results obtained. Leader among consultancy companies in the SME sector, it currently has a team of over 60 Export Specialists operating throughout Central and Northern Italy, 4 Co.Mark Network Centers active in Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzo and Lazio, an active client portfolio of about 500 companies and a very high success rate and loyalty index. Co.Mark also offers consultancy to large companies and services in support of trade associations present throughout the country. For info www.comarkspa.it
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