Lucia Faccio: Italy is a "center of excellence" for Biotech

On Saturday, April 2, Luigi Dell'Olio of the economic and financial news site monitorisparmio.it interviewed Sofinnova Partners’ Lucia Faccio.

Lucia is a Partner in the Sofinnova Telethon Strategy, which supports innovative young biotech companies as they push promising research programs in rare genetic disorders towards preclinical and clinical development. The Telethon Strategy, a unique partnership with the Telethon Foundation, aims to foster a thriving biotech ecosystem in Italy.

Sofinnova Partners has raised over €1 billion over the last 12 months, Ms. Faccio pointed out, "the fruit of a strategy aimed at supporting new businesses that are starting to reap benefits, with the involvement of institutional capital.”

Turning to Italy, she said that biotechnology “is one of the sectors of excellence of the Italian economy, with many young companies that have developed innovative ideas and are looking for capital to develop."

“We invest in highly innovative technologies that can make a difference and are capable of solving problems that emerge," Ms. Faccio said. "But we also invest in people; they are crucial for making ideas grow.”

She said the number of institutional investors in Sofinnova Partners’ LP pool had "more than tripled" in the last two years, “a demonstration of the interest there is in the field" of innovative biotechnology startups.

To view the entire video interview (in Italian), go to the MonitorIsparmio website.