Nathalie Dompé: «Our success in the US is driven by technology and research, but the production remains in Italy» - Corriere della Sera
Dompé is a striking case of expansion in the United States. While maintaining production in Italy and developing the historic L'Aquila plant, the Milan-based pharmaceutical company covered 72% of its revenues in the United States in 2022 (€776 million) and plans to grow further.
“This year we expect to reach over one billion in turnover, of which 75% from the US, where next year we will invest €130 million in research and development, up from €100 million this year,” says Nathalie Dompé, co-CEO of Dompé Pharmaceuticals (1,000 employees) and of Dompé Holdings, which is wholly owned by her father, Sergio.
It is she — 37 years old, with two children of 4 (Sergio) and 2 years (Talitha), home for years near the American headquarters of the company in San Mateo, California, near Palo Alto — behind the American push of the Oki company, which here cultivate clinical and preclinical studies, in addition to investment relationships with biotech companies such as Aramis Bioscience.
“We are already at 150 people in the US; they will increase by 20% in 2024. We were at 70 in 2018,” says Nathalie Dompé. In addition, there are acquisition projects in advanced stages.
“The intention to expand is there; we are in a favorable moment,” says the CEO. “We have looked at a hundred companies in the last two years, some of them even worth a few billion. We are in the due diligence phase on a couple of things. We focus on biotech and rare diseases.”
Why America?
“I think it has resources and a biotech culture that stimulates research and can have a strong impact on projects,” says the entrepreneur. “There is a different system which values innovative drugs more than in Europe. There are hubs with virtuous circuits: on the East Coast, the one around Harvard and Boston, for example; on the West Coast, the one around Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. Skills are concentrated, and there are centers of excellence. All this is attractive for research.”
In short, it is not so much a matter of incentives or tax breaks: “There is a different culture, there are no European skills, the system prevails.”
Dompé's exponential growth in the US is so far due to the approval by the FDA, the authority that oversees medicines of NGF, the Nerve growth factor, and the “Montalcini molecule” that regenerates the nerves of the eye. And that of the biotech eye drops against neurotrophic keratitis, with which Dompé has tripled its revenues in five years.
But it is only the first step, notes the entrepreneur, because new molecules are also being studied for the American market. One is Reparixin, in phase 3, the closest to a possible registration against acute respiratory distress syndrome.
“In the United States, we have 12 active clinical trials in autoimmune diseases, ophthalmology, and respiratory diseases, and a scientific network with over 100 partners,” says Nathalie Dompé, who, however, clarifies: “Our production will remain in Italy, concentrated in L'Aquila.”
A sign of the increased attention to the United States is the appointment of Shannon K. Sullivan, a former Amgen, as head of biotech commercial last month (chief commercial officer).
“It indicates a precise direction, an evolved growth,” says the entrepreneur. “Shannon has worked at Amgen for 20 years; she has a concrete pharmaceutical culture.”
Rooting in the United States is also expressed through social activities such as scholarships for one million dollars in 2024 and the funding of the kindergarten “La Scuola” in 2022, with 37 children, on the Emilian model, with Valentina Imbeni, daughter of the former mayor of Bologna.
