Polifarma SpA: Best Healthcare Corporate Strategy Italy 2020
Polifarma celebrated its centenary in 2019 with the slogan, “a hundred years spent in the future”. The company’s commitment to specialized skills and the search for innovative, effective solutions have seen it become a benchmark of excellence in the Italian pharmaceutical sector. Polifarma’s story has been a personal and ethical one, leading up to its acquisition by Luisa Angelini 21 years ago. In the 2000s, pharmaceutical companies were hard-hit by the explosion of generic drugs on the market and – faced with the loss of a product patent – Polifarma realized it needed a new corporate strategy. Turnover had plummeted from €40m to €18m – but the company had prepared for this. It acquired Polifarma Benessere, an OTC and cosmetic company, cementing its presence in the sector. Since 2010, it has released 10 new products and projects and trebled turnover to €55m. It has identified digitalisation as a strategic key to the future of healthcare and developed a digital revolution program thanks to a cultural change management that has led to the engagement of the whole company in a future-orientated strategic plan. Moreover, its strengthened ophthalmology offering now accounts for 42% of turnover. This was made possible by a flexible internal organizational structure in which every employee knows his role and feels valued. Polifarma this year inaugurated its Hospital Business Unit, targeting private clinics and hospital markets and strengthened the Foreign Business Unit in order to broaden its presence in the international markets. CEO Dr. Andrea Bracci has been appointed vice-president of the pharmaceutical section of the Lazio regional industrial and business organization and member of the Digital Transformation Group, in recognition of his service. The CFI.co judges name Polifarma SpA as winner of the 2020 award for Best Healthcare Corporate Strategy (Italy).
