Pharmaceuticals, Diana Bracco: “Research, innovation and increasingly predictive medicine”

“The terrible health emergency has made us understand many things, the holistic vision of One health has been affirmed” and “everyone has understood the immeasurable value of scientific research and innovation, the only weapons that can defeat diseases and protect us in the present. and in the future. At the beginning of the pandemic, no one would have imagined that so many vaccines and treatments would be found in such a short time. A success resulting from global scientific research, best supported by international and national institutions, and an accomplished miracle of companies in the life sciences sector, an increasingly important sector also in our country, where it generates over 11% of GDP and is a of the spearheads of made in Italy “. Thus, in an interview with Class magazine, Diana Bracco, president and Chief executive officer (CEO) of the Bracco group, one of the most authoritative figures in Italian entrepreneurship. Under her leadership, the family business founded by her grandfather Elio Bracco in 1927 has acquired a global leadership position in diagnostic imaging and today has 3,600 employees and has a turnover of over 1.6 billion euros, 88% of which from sales. international. The integration between molecular biology, biotechnology and the digital is bringing about a profound revolution. “Medicine – explains Bracco – is becoming more and more predictive and personalized to the individual patient not only for diagnosis but also for prognosis and to direct the most effective therapy. The fight against the virus has favored, among other things, a wide use of RNA technology which in the future can be used to fight the great killers of our time – tumors, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases – has favored an acceleration of technological means and made clear the urgency of the evolution of the rules to monitor, use and share big data on health in real time, not only for diagnosis but also to provide effective targeted and sustainable therapies “. Looking at the international situation , the entrepreneur observes that “the war in Ukraine blocked the recovery after the pandemic, creating a very strong inflationary push linked to energy supplies and exacerbated tensions on the prices of raw materials. Chemical and pharmaceutical companies are energy-intensive and so, as happens to many families, they are in difficulty in making ends meet: for this reason, like Confindustria, we ask the government for decisive interventions in the field of energy and an important cut in the tax wedge in favor of workers ” . In describing the main areas of interest, the number one of the group explains: “Our research activity is aimed above all at the development of highly innovative molecules and diagnostic technologies for an ever better management of procedures in a wide spectrum of relevant pathologies. We then work, both in the field of process and product innovation, in the field of green chemistry, magnetic resonance diagnostics, diagnostics and therapy with microbubbles for ultrasound procedures and for the development of innovative agents for applications in oncology imaging in the field of nuclear medicine. ”Bracco’s investments in R&I amount to 10% of the reference turnover. The group “has always carried out a careful scouting of interesting start-ups and growth opportunities through acquisitions and agreements – explains the entrepreneur in the interview -. Recently Bracco imaging, of which my nephew Fulvio Renoldi Bracco is vice president and CEO, acquired an important British company, Blue Earth Diagnostics, which expands our product portfolio by enriching it with new solutions in nuclear oncological imaging in urology and other specialties and also has received the M&A award for the best Italian merger and acquisition operation abroad of 2019 also operated in the health services sector “. Diana Bracco is also president and CEO of the Italian Diagnostic Center (Cdi), a reality that” was born in 1975 from a brilliant intuition of my father Fulvio and his friend Sergio Chiappa, head of radiology at Fatebenefratelli. The winning idea – she explains – was to create a full-service outpatient health facility aimed at prevention, diagnosis and treatment in a day hospital, a structure with cutting-edge technologies, quality doctors and with a spasmodic attention to the patients. with this recipe the Cdi has never stopped growing and has become an excellence of Lombard and Italian healthcare “. Always in search of clinical excellence – reads the text of the interview – in accordance with its mission,” the Cdi has two cyberknife devices, the revolutionary radiosurgical robot that places us at the forefront of cancer therapy. Our diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine offer the most advanced and innovative instruments such as: 64-layer dual source CT, pet / tc, 6 magnetic resonances (two of which are open) for a total of over 220,000 exams reported per year. The laboratory uses the largest automated chain in Italy, guaranteeing data security and, at the same time, a large number of analyzes that exceed five million in a year. “In the present and future of the group, artificial intelligence and big data. “The face of medicine is changing – observes Bracco – as are the so-called friendly sciences, ie radiomics and genomics, which are the new frontier of personalized treatments. During the pandemic, Bracco imaging and the Italian Diagnostic Center have developed Ai-for-covid imaging archive, a database that contains thousands of radiological examinations and which has been made available to the entire international scientific community to predict the clinical evolution of disease and to allow personalized and more timely therapies. ”The Bracco group – writes Class – is one of the key players on a global scale for its ability to offer advanced products and solutions for the various imaging modalities. In 2021 Bracco incurred costs for R&D and support activities amounting to 161.5 million euros. About 10% of revenues. Product innovation projects are underway in the field of magnetic resonance diagnostics of diagnostics and therapy with microbubbles for ultrasound procedures and for the development of innovative agents for applications in oncological imaging in the field of nuclear medicine.