It all began forty years ago in Massagno, in that small building at Via al Ponte 13, with its grey plaster, green shutters and five steps leading to a small, gloomy entrance (never particularly liked, at least at first, by Arturo Licenziati), carpet everywhere (even on the walls of the meeting room), offices with mismatching ceiling colours, following a logic difficult to decipher, and squat toilets. In August 1985, the old IBSA – a company founded in 1945 by a group of Swiss biochemists – was located there, and it was from there that Licenziati had to relaunch it under new management.
The sense of teamwork and the importance of the group
Article written by Paolo Rossi Castelli
THE BEGINNING
In truth, in 1985 IBSA was close to bankruptcy, with just a few dozen employees and a modest turnover of about 6 million Swiss francs, generated by only two sources: the nearly exhausted production of antibiotics and a drug for the treatment of ulcers, Urogastrone. “That medicine, which was sold exclusively in Japan, was the only product bringing in any real margin”, recalls Antonio Melli, current Vice-President of IBSA. “The rest of the situation was disastrous”.
The company’s troubles had begun about 6 years earlier, in 1979, with the collapse of antibiotic exports, which had accounted for around 70% of total sales. “Between the late 70s and 1985”, continues Melli, “IBSA couldn’t replace the significant drop in revenue with new products. New capital was injected but quickly used up due to the company’s weak financial position. Those were very different times from the IBSA we know today. I remember them well”.
Why, then, did Licenziati – aged fifty at the time – choose to take such a risky gamble, investing and mortgaging all his assets, to acquire a company that was now at the end of the line? He was a successful executive (then leading Inpharzam, the Swiss branch of Zambon, after opening other European offices for the Italian group), with a stable job and – presumably – a solid salary package. Perhaps it was his accumulated experience and a taste for (calculated) risk that convinced him to take a new, more dangerous – but certainly more exciting – path. “A friend had told him about IBSA, a small company that was said to be for sale”, says Melli. “The owners were likely out of resources and had therefore come to the decision to sell their business. Licenziati jumped at the challenge – I believe he wanted to prove what he was capable of as an entrepreneur too. Thanks to his reputation at Inpharzam, he had excellent credibility with Swiss banks, which allowed him to secure the support needed to relaunch the company. But, of course, he had to risk everything he had built up until then”.
So began the new life of Licenziati – and of IBSA – in the small Massagno building that housed both the offices and the factory. The first thing he did was call the decorators and have everything repainted white inside. Then he made the entrance more welcoming. And naturally, he and the small initial team focused all their efforts on stabilising the company’s finances – not a simple task.
A STRONG WILL TO CREATE
“IBSA was not very large, but it still had a lab and a production line”, recalls Michela Lazzaroni, who was in charge of the purchasing office at the time. “Most of all, there was a strong desire to build something. Licenziati was always present, attentive to each of us. He knew how to listen, and he would reply with extreme clarity and with a sense of respect (sometimes, if necessary, with a bit of sternness). He was a father figure, highly respected. We often met in the early mornings by the fax machine (the only one in the company) in the secretary’s office, next to his office. Together, we’d go over the overnight messages – hoping for some new orders – and we sorted them by recipients. Very often Licenziati brought us coffee, and we talked about those documents: it was a moment of interaction and connection, in a “warm”, family atmosphere”.
Rosalba Brogna and Maria Teresa Gilardoni, who joined the company sometime later, add: “There were three main departments: liquids, powders, and packaging. Everything was done manually, aided by semi-automated machines. We weighed ingredients by hand, mixed creams, filled tubes one by one, and packed them with the Patient Leaflets. Making a single batch of ointment took an entire week”.
DRIVING INNOVATION, INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
IBSA’s struggle for survival relied on Urogastrone, but also on contract-manufactured eye drops, small-scale productions including distilled water for a veterinary lab in Lugano, ointments and whatever else could provide financial support to the company. As they say: nothing was ignored, as long as it brought in a bit of margin. “In 1988 and 1990”, explains Melli, “we secured a contract to package an antibiotic made by an Italian company for the US market. Back then, Switzerland was already viewed as a pharmaceutical leader, so the US regulatory requirements were less stringent than for other countries. Packaging took place in the appropriate departments, but after normal working hours: around 4:30 pm, reinforcements arrived, with help from Licenziati himself, Mrs. Isabella and several employees, tasked with filling the bottles with 100 capsules each using an old but reliable King capsule counter. That business proved essential to ensure IBSA’s future in those first difficult years: it allowed us to move on and start investing in Research & Development and new production facilities and commercial activities”.
A growing company, but still a family-run business. Licenziati knew everyone by name. At Christmas, he would personally deliver bonus envelopes; at Easter he would toast in the departments. He would also bring mimosa flowers on International Women’s Day. “He created an environment”, recalls Brogna, “where everyone felt part of something. We were a small group that did everything: from capsules to ointments, from weighing to packaging. And there weren’t many written procedures; you learned on the job, often by heart, or writing down notes in a notebook... It felt like working at home. We paid attention to waste and details. When we had to leave the Massagno site, it felt like saying goodbye to a part of our life”.
Licenziati knew, however, that investing in innovation and new drugs was essential. After a trip to Japan, he had the insight to develop the Flector Patch, adapting a transdermal format – the medicated patch – widely used in the Far East for aesthetic treatments, but not yet for drugs. “As an active ingredient”, says Melli, “we used diclofenac-epolamine, a molecule patented by IBSA that was both water-soluble and fat-soluble, making it ideal for topical application. That was the real turning point for IBSA”.
“Our strategy”, explains Melli, “was to develop innovative drugs and delivery systems starting from well-known, off-patent active ingredients (drugs in the best form). We invested a lot in people, Research & Development, production facilities and marketing. Initially, we focused only on the Swiss market: we had no subsidiaries abroad, because we did not have the necessary financial capacity... Then, little by little, we began licensing our products to other companies, including multinationals, that were present in various countries with a widespread distribution network. The next step was the direct acquisition of our own foreign distributors and the opening of commercial subsidiaries in Europe, China and the United States”.
Our workforce also grew with the business, but without losing the original spirit. “Despite his top role, Licenziati was one of us”, says Gilardoni. “He used to say: ‘A single pencil breaks. Many pencils together do not. And we are all these pencils.’ He conveyed a sense of teamwork and the importance of the group.” A style that conquered his employees’ hearts: “The day my son was born”, recalls Lazzaroni, “Dr. Licenziati came to visit me in the hospital with a huge bouquet of roses. I will never forget that”.
A romantic man, but also a determined entrepreneur. “When I first met him for my job interview”, recalls Tiziano Fossati, current Head of Products Development at IBSA, “he told me: ‘Today we produce a million units; I want to double that in a few years. And I will’. He was right. Today it’s over twenty million!”. Fossati came from Novartis, where everyone, in a sort of perfect mechanism, was called upon to deal with a single piece of work. “In IBSA, on the other hand”, he says, “the interaction between departments was constant and indispensable. Rules were not always clearly defined; it took an entrepreneurial mindset”. Of course, sometimes, you also had to deal with some small inconvenience... “When I started working in the company”, Fossati recalls, smiling, “my first office was inside the room where the company servers were also located! Too noisy to work... So I found another desk. Nothing was perfectly organized in IBSA, but that flexibility also became a strength: we had to adapt and act independently”.
This adaptability became crucial during one of the darkest moments for the company: the 1999 fire that destroyed the factory annexed to the Massagno building. “I was at home on maternity leave”, recalls Lazzaroni, “and I could see the flames through my window, because I lived right across the valley. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the fire raged for hours, because the building had partially wooden floors, and the blaze had started in the warehouse, full of paper and many other inflammable materials. In the end, there was nothing left: laboratories, raw materials… everything to be bought and rebuilt. But it was also a turning point: we moved to Collina d’Oro, we built new facilities, we reorganised... That’s when IBSA really began to grow”.