THE ITALIAN WAY: PHARMA & HEALTHCARE

Almost 25,000 active companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors contribute 10% to Italy’s GDP, generating a €110 billion in annual revenue. Both sectors have enjoyed years of growth in terms of revenues, will endure the impact of Covid-19 and see growth in 2021.

The final The Italian Way event, which focused on the challenges and opportunities for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, was held on 23 July in Milan in partnership with Assolombarda.

The event was moderated by Andrea Casini, Co-CEO Commercial Banking Italy, who was joined by several UniCredit colleagues: Marco Bortoletti, Regional Manager Lombardy; Laura Torchio, Industry Expert Corporate Sales & Marketing; and Lucio Izzi, Head of Corporate Sales & Marketing.

Also joining the discussion were Sergio Dompé, Vice President with responsibility for Assolombarda’s Life Sciences Department, Gabriele Pelissero, President Lombardy Lifescience Cluster, Maurizio de Cicco, President and Managing Director Roche Italy, Renato Carli, Director General Italian Diagnostic Centre, Clara Sattler de Sousa e Brito, Managing Director Siemens Healthcare; Fabio Miraglia, Advisory Board Central Italy UniCredit and President GIOMI RSA, Piero Di Lorenzo, President and Managing Director IRBM, Luciano Ravera, Managing Director IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas and Antonio Calabrò, Advisory Board Lombardy UniCredit and Director Pirelli Foundation.

Commenting on The Italian Way event programme, Andrea Casini, Co-CEO Commercial Banking Italy UniCredit said: “With the Milanese event, we come to the end of The Italian Way cycle of events during which we took the opportunity to reflect deeply on the strategies needed to relaunch Italy’s made in Italy sectors of excellence. I want to thank everyone who contributed to the seven events and share their ideas on how these important sectors can restart.”

1 Different impacts on healthcare and pharma sectors

Not all the supply chain areas have been immune to Covid-related impacts. While the pharma sector has the crisis could cost the healthcare sector 4-5% of its annual turnover.

2 Covid has exposed issues

The pandemic has highlighted the unsolved problems of the national healthcare system: an ineffective organisation model, the constant lack of specialised medical staff, and the delays in digitising healthcare processes.

3 Healthcare real estate is an attractive investment

Investors are increasingly interested in alternative sectors, such as healthcare real estate, that can deliver long term revenues, portfolio diversification and a low risk rate. We predict that private equity firms could allocate 50% of their real estate funds to alternative sectors, such as the healthcare.

4 Three main pillars to restart

Of the post-Covid growth opportunities for companies in the Pharma & Healthcare supply chains, many are connected to three main drivers

• The “Silver Economy”: this means investing in the business opportunities tied to the increasing number of senior citizens that have high purchase capabilities
• Digitalisation: Pharma is one of the sectors that is leading the way in the digitalisation process. The healthcare sector is further behind
• Sustainability: the impact of the pandemic has shown a need to promote more inclusive and responsible growth models