Booming pharmaceuticals. What better recipe for recovery?
Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are bearing the blow of the crisis caused by the pandemic better than many others. The reason may appear obvious in comparison with tourism and catering businesses, yet its roots are not only to be found in the spread of Covid and the fact that the pharmaceutical front is in the vanguard in the fight against contagion.
Companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device sector, which is due to grow between 1.2 and 4.2% depending on whether there is a resurgence of the virus or not, were not caught unprepared by the arrival of the emergency. Years of continuous growth and innovation have made it possible to define an encouraging result in a sector in which 70% of workers are employed in companies with over 250 employees, unlike manufacturing where the figure is steady at 24%.
The analysts start from a study on the Life Science industry by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, EY and Luis Business School. The report is clear: not only was the pharmaceutical sector ready for the crisis, but it has shown a lot of resilience and the ability to create new jobs notwithstanding Covid-19 and the difficulty of providing fast and definitive solutions such as a vaccine, unlikely to be ready before 2022.
These observations give rise to the considerations of those who, data in hand, press the Government to invest in economic terms in the Pharma sector. Investment would enable the sector to drive the country’s economic performance, rather than the government trying to put right sectors such as tourism that are in serious difficulty and which, according to this analysis, are unable to generate new employment.
If it is true that a winning team does not change, it should also be considered which are the strategic assets of the development of the Peninsula, traditionally distinctive of Made in Italy. In the state of the art, a relaunch plan would be ideal which, thanks to the results of the pharmaceutical industry, would focus on a hybrid strategy that would leave no one behind. Without ignoring the numbers of the Pharma but integrating its development with that of the country system.
While the saying “never change a winning team” is true, the strategic assets that traditionally distinguish Made in Italy should also be considered in developing the peninsula. In its present state, the ideal relaunch plan, boosted by the results of the pharmaceutical industry, would focus on a hybrid strategy that would leave no one behind. Integrating the development of the Pharma sector with that of the country system rather than side-lining its numbers.
