Interview with Riccardo Carbucicchio, President and CEO of NTC

Interview with Riccardo Carbucicchio, President and CEO of NTC

  • Jan 27, 2022

NTC is in the middle of a double-digit growth path since years now and it has reached important goals already. What are NTC's key objectives in 2022?

Our main goal is to continue to establish global partnerships for the key innovative products of our portfolio and pipeline and to market them successfully in many countries. NTC has a strong international footprint: currently, our Italian business represents only about 15% of our sales. 70% of our sales are in Europe, and the remaining 30% are outside of Europe. We recently entered two large partnerships in Asia, and we expect China to be an important growth driver in the coming years for NTC.

Besides this, we are reinforcing our brand identity as a company where advanced scientific research and technology are the drivers of innovation in care practices. R&D is the soul of NTC: improving the experience of care is our vocation which translates into new and specific therapeutic gestures, simple and intuitive, sustainable, and technically advanced for better empowering the patient.

What is the potential of the NTC portfolio?

The potential is closely correlated with the capability of our products to respond to unmet medical needs. Our core area is Ophthalmology with a special dedicated focus on therapeutic solutions designed to prevent antibiotic resistance, as inspired by the large-scale World Health Organization programs. The widespread use of antibiotics in ophthalmology has made ineffective up to 80% of current therapies. NTC is working intensively to leverage antibiotics with a broad spectrum of action on bacteria and documented in new indications with large clinical evidence.

Besides Ophthalmology, NTC also works in Gastroenterology, Women’s health, Pediatrics, and Dermatology.

In Gastroenterology, we propose products for IBS-C and IBS-D, and we have an interesting line of probiotics too. However, our most important product is a novel drug preparation for patients undergoing colonoscopy. Our product has the potential to simplify dramatically the patient experience and we expect it will unleash new opportunities for early detection of polyps and colorectal cancer. We will initiate its registration path in early 2022 and we are selecting the best companies in the area with the aim to take our innovative product towards a leadership position in the segment.

The philosopher Peter Drucker says: “The best way to predict future is to create it”, what future does NTC intend to create?

We will keep on maintaining a close relationship with the world of Medicine to places us at the centre of the therapeutic alliance between patient and doctor.

We are driven by evidence-based medicine, that means a never-ending effort to develop solutions for our customers to innovate the experience and the educational program of care always finding new evidence.

Evidence Based Medicine is like the mantra for your company.

Yes, it is, but it is not an end in itself: it is a way to develop and affirm novel solutions for our customers to innovate the therapeutic experience and the educational program of care.

Since 2017 we have published studies involving more than 1,600 patients. Over 120 experts have added greatly to the body of scientific knowledge by contributing to the papers relating to NTC products. The main clinical studies have been published in international journals with significant impact factors. The quality of NTC’s scientific evidence has facilitated a fast registration path of its products in many countries around the world. The scientific methodology of NTC seeks scientific advice on the development programs by international regulatory authorities (we had more than 10 scientific advice with European Regulatory Agencies during the last 3 years).

What about business sustainability?

Corporate Social Responsibility is high on our agenda.

NTC considers ESG essential for the ethical, responsible, and transparent management of its business.

To build sustainable value, NTC fosters integration and synergy between its strategic business objectives and its sustainability goals, pursues new processes and product innovation and promotes diversity, training, and wellbeing initiatives.

In short, what is the 2022 objective?

We target to further expand internationally our Ophthalmology offerings, adding new strategic partnerships. In parallel, we aim to kick off the registration of our innovative drug in gastroenterology in over 50 markets in 2022. We plan to continue to deliver double digit growth and possibly to accelerate.