Private (family-owned) | |
Industry | Chemical, pharmaceutical |
Founded | 1927 |
Founder | Elio Bracco |
Headquarters | Italy |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Key people
|
Diana Bracco (President and CEO) |
Products | contrast agents, injectors, medical devices, pharma |
Revenue | €1,300,000,000 |
Number of employees
|
3400 (2015) |
Website | www |
The Bracco Group is an Italian multinational active in the healthcare sector with more than 3,300 employees worldwide, which operates in a variety of business areas.
Bracco has consolidated revenues of more than 1.1 billion euro, of which 75% from international sales. The Group is present in 100 countries and invests approximately 10% of its core diagnostic imaging revenues in research and innovation. An international leader in diagnostic imaging, in Italy Bracco is also a well-known brand associated with a number of historic pharmaceutical products such as Cebion, Xamamina, Euclorina, the Alfa eye-drops line and the Friliver range of sport supplements.
The Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is Diana Bracco. A Chemistry graduate from the University of Pavia, Diana Bracco is also Chairman of Expo 2015 Spa, General Section Commissioner for the Italy Pavilion at Expo and Confindustria Vice President for Research & Innovation. Decorated as a Cavaliere del Lavoro, she was President of Assolombarda and, before that, Chairman of Federchimica. In February 2001 she received an Honorary Doctor of Pharmacy degree from University of Pavia. In May 29, 2015 Diana Bracco has is under investigation for tax evasion as CEO of Italian healthcare group Bracco Spa.
In January 12, 2015 Diana Bracco is "prosecuted on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement, crimes allegedly committed as chairman of the board of the pharmaceutical group Bracco Spa."
The company founded by Elio Bracco was established in 1927 in Milan with the name Società Italiana Prodotti E Merck, to produce, package and sell the chemical products of the German company E. Merck. It had just five employees. In 1934 Fulvio Bracco, Elio’s son, officially joined the company which, the same year, began marketing Cebion, an innovative product based on vitamin C, recently discovered by Hungarian professor Szent-Györgyi. In 1962 Bracco researchers created the first contrast agent based on their original research: iodamide, a product with very high tolerability. On 17 March 1977 Diana Bracco, Fulvio’s daughter, was appointed Bracco General Manager.
In 1981 the company launched Iopamidol in Italy and Germany, a product with outstanding tolerability, whose stability allowed it to be stored in phials for unlimited periods of time. In the second half of the 1980s, Bracco Spa became the leading international producer of non-ionic contrast agents. It also won a positive response and important results for other formulations, including the anti-tuberculosis drug pyrazinamide, of which Bracco is the leading world producer, which is included in the WHO list of essential pharmaceuticals.