Good news from the Italian pharmaceutical industry: with 32 billion of production, of which 80% destined for export (+118% from 2008 to 2018), our country is the leading pharmaceutical producer in Europe in 2018, overtaking Germany after a long chase .
Istat certified a slight decrease in February, minus 3% in turnover, but the trend remains positive and also in research and development the drug companies, Farmindustria data in hand, make an important contribution: clinical studies for 700 million euros in 2017, collaborations with universities and public research institutes, 1.5 billion euros invested in research and development and 1.3 billion for production in 2017 alone.
For this reason, Italy, already a real European hub for production, also wants to become the center for the development of new therapies, perhaps intercepting part of the trillion dollars that will be invested worldwide in research and development in the coming six years.
Lombardy and Lazio have been confirmed as regional leaders for several years now, as emerges from the Report on pharmaceutical indicators by Farmindustria. Lombardy absorbs about half of the employees in the national sector with 28,000 units plus 18,000 in related industries, followed by Lazio with over 60 companies in the sector, 16,000 employees and 6,000 in related industries.
It is also the Italian leader for investments amounting to 400 million euros and is the second region for exports, which is worth over 5 billion euros out of a national total of 21. Lazio is in first place with 9.1 billion. Italy has almost 200 pharmaceutical companies, 66,000 employees, of whom 90% are university graduates or diploma holders, 6,400 researchers. The under 35s, between 2014 and 2017, increased by 11 percent and are 81 percent of new hires, almost all with permanent contracts. Female employment is also excellent, well above 40% and almost 50% in the research and development section.
