• In the last 2 years, 30 million was invested in biotechnological setup and production capacity increase (at 50 million items per year). Since 1993 another 200 million euro was invested
  

• The research and development is part of an international network with another 200 national and international establishments, with L’Aquila’s centre of excellence. Dompé invests 15% of its turnover in R&D

L’Aquila, 21 June 2018 - Italian biopharmaceutical company, Dompé, has completed expansion work on the production, research and development site in L’Aquila, with an investment of 30 million euro over the last two years (in addition to 200 million euro since 1993, the year in which Dompé was established), thus fulfilling the Development Contract from 41 million euros signed (9.4 by Invitalia) at the end of 2014.

The intervention concerned the creation of new areas, consisting of a four-storey building dedicated to the production process of coated granules, a three-storey building for packaging and a new warehouse. The L’Aquila site, specializing in the production of synthetic medicines and active biotechnological ingredients, thus reaches a full-speed productive capacity of 50 million items a year.

“An important signal”, highlights Sergio Dompé, President and CEO of Dompé farmaceutici, “that further consolidates our presence in this territory with a long-term prospect and a strong association with innovation. In L’Aquila”, concludes Sergio Dompé, “we can boast on the one hand the production at global scale of the recombinant form of NgF, Nerve Growth Factor, a molecule discovered through Italian research, which is today used as a therapy for the treatment of a serious, rare orphan disease, and on the other, the enterprise with the largest granulator with rotating nozzel in use in the pharmaceutical field on an international scale”.

Since 1993 the Dompé site has been the subject of an ongoing investment plan to the value of more than 200 million euro that concerned: the creation of the production site (1993), the creation of the experimental plant for biotechnologies (1996), the creation of the production plant for industrial biotechnology upstream, downstream and cell bank (2012-2013), the realisation of the first expansion phase of the pharmaceutical production plant for coated granules, liquids and new packaging lines (2013-2016).

The establishment in L’Aquila, immersed in the industrial centre of Campo di Pile, extends over a total surface of 157,668 square metres, of which 36,200 include the research laboratories, production, warehouse, utilities, general services and administrative offices. 241 people work on this site, dedicated to production, and to research and development in the laboratories, with an average age of 41 years (44% having degrees, with more than half of these female, 51% have diplomas), and there is a constant growth with time.

Within the centre the research area (in which the company invests 15% of its turnover yearly. In 2017 the turnover was 252 million) is focused both on the development of pharmaceuticals for therapeutic needs as yet unfulfilled, in the areas of ophthalmology, oncology, diabetes and organ transplant, as well as in the creation of innovative industrialisation processes of these. Dompé research and development involves a wide range of collaborations at national and international level that connects more than 200 centres and universities, amongst which are Harvard Houston Methodist, Stanford, Columbia University, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, National Institute of Health, with which over time 21 clinical trials were conducted, that involved more than 1,200 patients around the world.

Dompé develops, along with the centres and the universities in Abruzzo, both pre-clinical and clinical research activity and experimentation with new treatments as well as processing industrialization activities. In the first case, we mention for example the activity with some clinical groups in the development of the recombinant human variant of the Nerve Growth Factor (rhNGF), and in the second, the study of mathematical modelling of the process of biotechnological fermentation, using artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks and neuro-fuzzy modelling. Another noteworthy activity concerns the joint participation of programmes of international research, such as those related to the Horizon 2020 call. The collaborations in the territory have the objective of creating new knowledge and developing suitable expertise for the profound technological and innovative transformation that is revolutionizing the health sector worldwide.

Established in 1940 in Milan, Dompé is an Italian bio-pharmaceutical company that focuses on innovation, where a long tradition in the field of personal wellness goes hand in hand with a commitment to research and development to meet hitherto unsatisfied therapeutic needs. Dompé’s commitment works through the Primary Care business unit, active in the development and distribution of ethical medicines and self medication, supplements, medical and cosmetic appliances, in the sector of vitamin and mineral supplementation and of personal hygiene, of Biotech, with medicine for the treatment of rare diseases. The company still has its own head offices in Milan. In Italy, the company is also present in L’Aquila, with an industrial centre for biotechnological research, and in Naples, where there are the laboratories of Drug Discovery and Technology Formulation, within a long-term collaboration with CNR. The Dompé Group also has branches in the United States, in Boston, and in Europe, in Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, Marlow (UK) and Tirana.

Contact:

Benedetta Bitozzi

Dompé farmaceutici S.p.A.

Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Manager

Mob. +39 3667742408

benedetta.bitozzi@dompe.comStefano Amoroso

Dompé Holdings

Communication and Media Relations

Tel. +39 02 58383275 – Mob. +39 340 2838136

stefano.amoroso@dompe.com