Being able to offer innovative treatment options and thus improve the health and lives of our patients is our driving purpose. This is why research and development, or R&D for short, is not only important to Chiesi as a technologically orientated company – it is absolutely essential for us as a pharmaceutical manufacturer. This is because the path from the idea to customised treatment with an innovative drug is a very long and often rocky one. The process of discovering suitable drug candidates and developing market-ready drugs from them is extremely complex. That is why our R&D teams are interdisciplinary and are a crucial part of our company.
Every day, our researchers and developers at various sites around the world face the challenge of discovering new drug candidates and developing modern medicines. Our research and development strategy focuses on areas including preclinical and clinical research, quality assurance and the development of technologies and dosage forms with a view to improving the use of medicines or monitor their application. The work of our doctors, pharmacologists, chemists, health economists and technical staff ranges from development of a new drug to its market readiness and launch, as well as ongoing quality testing and adjustment.
Our Research and Development Centre is located in Parma, Italy. More than 500 employees work on new active ingredients here across 22,000 square metres and supervise clinical and preclinical studies. We also have R&D departments in Paris (France), Chippenham (UK), Cary (USA), Lidingo (Sweden), Shanghai (China) and Toronto (Canada) as well as the Parma site, with a total of over 1,300 researchers working for the Chiesi Group worldwide.
Chiesi invested around 24.3% of the Chiesi Group’s total revenue in research and development in 2024. This is paying off: we generate 75% of our sales from our own products.
Chiesi is also increasingly focussing on the areas of rare diseases, transplantation and biotechnology as well as our core business in the therapeutic areas of respiratory and neonatology.
Chiesi opened its new Biotech Centre of Excellence in Parma, Italy in September 2024, with the company pledging a total investment of 400 million euros by 2030. The Centre of Excellence uniquely brings research, development and production of biological drugs together under one roof – from cell cultivation to the finished drug and packaging for worldwide distribution.
We focus on the development and production of active substances of monoclonal antibodies, enzymes and other proteins for the treatment of rare diseases.
The Centre of Excellence is intended to promote biopharmaceutical research in Italy and Europe and attract talented researchers from all over Europe.
