A leading company in life sciences

Today, the Bracco Group presents itself with a clear vision of its mission which Diana, the third generation to lead the company, summarizes like this: “Our job is to develop innovative solutions for the prevention and early identification of diseases, to improve the quality of life.” The organization that was created in Milan just under one hundred years ago to market pharmaceutical products like Cebion from the German company Merck, is today a completely Italian multinational and one of the leading producers of contrast agents necessary for a limitless possibility of medical analyses. An all-around Italian example of excellence. It takes just a few figures to see why. Bracco currently has consolidated revenues of 1.5 billion euros, 87% of which come from international sales, and employs around 3,600 people. The president underlines, “We are a family business even though we’re global.” Then adds, “We Italians must be more aware and prouder of our capabilities and achievements. Of course, we have a lot of flaws. But we are unique. And Bracco is an example: if we have almost 30% of the global market of procedures utilizing contrast agents, it is because we had the skill to correctly and efficiently apply the scientific research to industrial manufacturing. And we did it in an extremely difficult and highly competitive area.” All of the above has been accomplished without trading off their own story and identity, like Bracco’s logo itself shows – a hexagon designed personally by Diana’s father, Fulvio Bracco, unchanged since it was created, inspired by the benzene ring at the center of the structural formula for Iopamidol, and to which some time later three words were added: Life from inside.

Text adapted from the book: Andrea Zaghi, Memory and the future. At the heart of industrial innovation in the third millennium, Luiss University Press, Rome 2021.