Menarini Asia-Pacific bags two awards at the SBR Management Excellence Awards 2022

It was recognised for having a robust team and an outstanding leader that guided the company to success.

Steering a company that is part of the world’s largest Italian biopharmaceutical company with a heritage of over 135 years and over 17,000 employees in more than 140 countries is no easy feat.

A member of the Menarini Group, Menarini Asia-Pacific (AMAP) has a direct presence in 13 major healthcare markets with over 3500 employees. Today, it strives to be a leading provider of important healthcare brands and services in the region.

For its milestones, it was recognised in the recently concluded Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards. The company received two prestigious awards: Executive of the Year – Pharmaceuticals and Team of the Year – Pharmaceuticals.

The awards programme recognises the most outstanding leaders in Singapore for their hard work and dedication that brought tangible contributions to their businesses. It also honours employee engagements and COVID management initiatives that have made a positive impact on its workforce or customers.

In granting the Executive of the Year – Pharmaceuticals award, the judging panel took into consideration the achievements of its CEO, Maurizio Luongo.

Luongo was instrumental in driving the growth of AMAP. Under his forward-looking leadership, AMAP achieved several significant partnerships to fulfil unmet needs in the market and increase treatment accessibility for patients.

Recognising the urgency and importance of extending healthcare solutions where they are most neglected, he embraced the use of technology and digitalisation to improve patients' access to healthcare treatments.

Today, AMAP is one of the top three fastest-growing regions within the Menarini Group globally.

Following this, he was also instrumental in securing strategic partnerships and acquisitions in China, specifically Cialis for men’s health and Vaborem for antimicrobial resistance, AMAP’s first out-licensing deal.

He likewise led the establishment of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI), a research and development hub for advancing healthcare biotechnology and diagnostics in Asia.

As for the second award received by AMAP, the Team of the Year – Pharmaceuticals award, this was granted after the judging panel reviewed the many achievements of AMAP’s Deal Team. The milestones mirror the achievements achieved in the first award but are focused on the team’s effort in making them possible.

The AMAP Deal Team lives up to its goal of ‘Invigorating Lives’. Driven by the desire to help patients access critical treatments and through their entrepreneurial spirit, the team helped AMAP secure commendable milestones, including their first out-licensing deal worth €115 million to tackle antimicrobial infections.

Over the past year, the team successfully secured new mergers and acquisitions, innovative asset licensing, and on-market brand commercialisation deals which have strengthened AMAP’s portfolio for the long term and played a leading role in shaping a more collaborative healthcare ecosystem to promote patients’ best interests.

Through these partnerships, AMAP became the third fastest-growing arm within Menarini, achieving 51% year-on-year growth in the men’s health category between 2020 and 2021.

Focusing on its highlighted achievements, the panel took into consideration three specific milestones achieved by the Deal Team.

First is that it helped the company acquire and commercialise Cialis, an erectile dysfunction drug which has become the biggest brand of organisation, with sales projected to reach €100 million.

Second is that it secured Menarini APAC’s first out-licensing deal with Vaborem, a drug used to treat antimicrobial resistance, with a value of over €115 million.

Lastly, AMAP achieved an unprecedented 13% increase in EBITA from 2020.

The SBR Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].