FLORENCE, Italy, March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2025 was a “positive year” for Menarini, which is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, despite considerable global “turbulence”. Lucia Aleotti, shareholder and member of the Menarini Board, said so with a smile as she opened the company’s customary annual meeting at the Florence Chamber of Commerce, starting with the figures. The pharmaceutical group, which operates in 140 countries worldwide, reported revenue “approaching €4.9 billion” — €4.887 billion to be precise — marking a 6.2% increase compared with 2024, with “EBITDA estimated between €440 million and €470 million”.

The strength of women

“I would like to open this meeting by highlighting a figure linked to merit. In 2025, for the first time, women outnumbered men: 50.7% of our 17,800 employees are women. These are women who joined purely on merit, because they excel at their jobs. Just as my father used to tell us: ‘Surround yourselves with people who bring you light’. Because we need exceptional people to help us face this highly demanding competition.”

The geography of a global company with 905 million units sold worldwide

From a geographical perspective, “we faced some difficulties in Ukraine due to the war, and in Turkey because of currency devaluation and inflation, but we recorded solid growth in Europe, the Middle East and Central America. The United States is now our second-largest market, while China — which last year fell short of expectations — delivered a very positive and encouraging trend in 2025, which bodes well for the current year as well.” This growth was driven by demand for a broad range of healthcare products: “We are talking about around 905 million units sold across 140 countries,” Aleotti said.

Exchange rate impact and oncology performance

The entrepreneur also expressed regret over “the euro–dollar exchange rate, which cost us almost €60 million by the end of the year”, but highlighted the strong performance across several therapeutic areas, from cardiovascular disease to diabetes. Oncology, in particular, delivered notable results. “Oncology has given us great satisfaction: in 2025 our revenue in the oncology area grew by €101 million, reaching a total of €630 million. It is a highly dynamic field and we are competing head-to-head — sometimes even slightly ahead — with some of the world’s largest companies.”

Commitment to research and development from a ‘prudent’ company

Focusing on innovation requires investment. In 2025, Menarini “invested €540 million in research and development. These figures reflect our determination to continue along the path of innovation by reinvesting all our profits,” Aleotti told the press. This strategy is made possible by the fact that Menarini is “a private, family-owned company. And also a prudent one, aiming to grow through self-financing without depending on others in its strategic decisions.”

Notable investments included €120 million in technology, as well as spending on cybersecurity. “However, investment in research and development must ultimately lead to the commercialisation of new medicines and generate economic returns. If the European Commission intends to shorten the duration of patent intellectual property protection, it risks discouraging pharmaceutical companies from investing in research,” Aleotti said.

The era of the ‘giants’ and priorities for European companies

Something is changing in the pharmaceutical sector. “Larger players — real giants — have entered the field: governments. Both the Chinese and US governments are acting to defend their own companies. In this context, European businesses need support and must be backed by policies that help them remain competitive and capable of meeting a crucial global challenge.” This challenge, Aleotti stressed, concerns not only revenues but also “the independence of our economies”.

The so-called ‘pee tax’

“What is Europe doing instead?” she asked. “The wastewater directive — effectively a ‘pee tax’. Pharmaceutical companies are being asked to purify all of Europe’s rivers because traces of medicines taken by patients end up in urine,” which then flows into water systems. “It is an anti-industrial policy,” Aleotti argued. “It has been estimated that this tax will amount to €12 billion per year paid by companies. That means ten new medicines that will not be developed. China and the United States subsidise their companies, while Europe introduces a ‘pee tax’.”

The impact of wars on pharma

War is another issue affecting the sector. “International tensions are driving up costs, yet pharmaceutical prices in Europe remain frozen: there is zero recovery through sales prices,” Aleotti noted, adding that the Russia–Ukraine conflict has increased drug production costs by around 30%. The new conflict in the Middle East — a key trade route for goods, including active pharmaceutical ingredients — is also a source of concern.

The ‘jewels’ in Menarini’s pipeline

Thanks to its research efforts, the group’s pipeline includes several promising developments. “Starting with the cardiovascular area, we have a next-generation lipid-lowering treatment. If approved for human use, it could become a pill with enormous potential, particularly for patients with difficult-to-treat or therapy-resistant hypercholesterolaemia,” Elcin Barker Ergun, Chief Executive Officer of the Menarini Group, told LaPresse on the sidelines of the 2025 results presentation.

“Another project involves an early clinical study for Elacestrant in the treatment of breast cancer, which is also extremely important. It is difficult to imagine a world completely free of cancer, but by combining early screening — particularly for breast and colorectal cancer — with pharmaceutical treatments, we can now achieve cures for many patients if the disease is detected in its early stages.”

AI and a renaissance in healthcare

Artificial intelligence is also playing an increasingly important role. According to Ergun, AI is significantly accelerating the discovery of new medicines and does not raise major safety concerns during the research phase, since in most cases it involves small molecules based on robust chemical platforms. “AI accelerates the screening and identification of molecules, but ultimately the process remains the traditional one of chemical synthesis that has always been used to produce medicines,” she said.

“Traditionally, discovering a new drug requires between five and ten years of work. With AI, this timeframe could be reduced to two or three years. This means we will see more medicines arriving much faster — which is why I speak of a renaissance in healthcare.” Through its partnership with Insilico Medicine, Menarini “is at the forefront of this approach, which is transforming not only drug discovery but also other stages of development, from identifying patients for clinical trials to regulatory processes,” Ergun concluded.

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