Menarini grows R&D, opens biotech facility

Privately-held Italian drugmaker Menarini has moved to fortify itsposition as the nation's number one pharmaceutical company through the opening of a new biotechnology facility in Pomezia, near Rome. The campus was officially inaugurated by Italy's Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, who told reporters that he was encouraged by Menarini ramping up its R&D activities and applauded attempts to bring more medicines, at affordable prices, to the Italian people.

In 2002, Menarini's workforce increased 6.9% to 9,185, ahead of the opening of the new capacity, and central medical director Alessandro Casini told the Marketletter that the figure is set to rise to 10,000 by year-end. Dr Casini added that Menarini had no plans to grow its sales and marketing team this year, and that a significant part of the staff expansion was attributable to increasing R&D activity.

Last year, Menarini, now ranked the 19th-largest drugmaker in Europe, reported a 7.9% increase in turnover to 1.67 billion euros ($1.84 billion) with the strongest sales performance coming from the domestic, German and Spanish markets. Forecasts for this year were difficult to make, claimed Dr Casini, and he would not be drawn on whether the company was set to continue with its positive growth trend. Successive cuts to the price of drugs imposed by the Berlusconi government had made conditions difficult, he noted, going on to say that Menarini was currently "operating at the lowest pricing point possible...although we do not know if further reductions are coming."