Italy is a major active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) supplier to the global market, and its stringent lockdown measures has caused disruption of the supply chains that relied on this manufacture during lockdowns.

While the country is now looking to reduce these restrictions, as the rate of COVID-19 infections has fallen and pressure from businesses and economic damage continue to mount, without any available vaccine a second peak of cases could hit the country when restrictions are eased, further impacting pharma production. Adam Bradbury, Associate Healthcare Analyst at GlobalData, notes: “Italy is an attractive destination for foreign-owned pharma companies, with 59% of the Italian pharma industry being formed by these companies. Italy also has a large number of pharma contract manufacturing organization (CMO) facilities. GlobalData’s Contract Service Provider database shows there are 148 CMOs with Italian facilities.”

Milan has the largest number of manufacturing facilities in Italy with 51, and Rome has the second largest number with seven. Large CMOs such as Albany Molecular Research and Recipharm AB have facilities based in Milan, which is the worst hit Italian region for COVID-19 prevalence. Varese and Bergamo are also present in the Northern region of Lombardy, indicating that the Northern region is a pharma powerhouse in the country. Both the Lazio and Tuscany regions where the rest of the top six cities are based currently have a far lower prevalence of COVID-19 infections than Lombardy.