To learn healing strategies from Nature and mimic them with molecules able to boost our body’s physiological mechanisms.
A revolutionary idea that underpins the entrepreneurial project of Francesco della Valle, a scientist and one of the greatest innovators of Italian pharmaceuticals, who made a great impression on the industry. A visionary who gave concepts an absolute value and always staunchly supported research and had great confidence in young researchers. A man with the courage of ideas, of perseverance, of resilience.
“In research, we should try to imagine the strategy that Nature would use and when developing new medicines we need to go beyond where Nature leads us: these are the two great teachings that Nobel Prize for Medicine winner Rita Levi-Montalcini and the great pharmacologist of Italian origin Erminio Costa left me.”
Francesco della Valle, a man with a profound passion for science, never tired of repeating. After earning a degree in Chemistry with a major in organic biochemistry, in 1988 he was awarded an Honorary Degree in Pharmacy from the University of Padua, followed by one in Biomedical Science from Georgetown University, Washington in 1989, and another one in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Ferrara in 1993.
Francesco della Valle was co-inventor of several pharmaceutical patents: 120 European patents, covering the continent’s major countries, and 88 US patents.
After early experiences in small companies, in 1968 he joined Fidia S.p.A., where he was appointed General Manager and later Managing Director. Under his guidance, Fidia became a major pharmaceutical player in the Italian market and one of the most active companies in terms of access to foreign markets. He left the company in 1991, to pursue his own objectives, by founding Lifegroup and then the Epitech Group.
In his long professional and managerial career, Francesco della Valle was instrumental in giving impetus to pharmaceutical research, which he directed towards a biopharmacology able to mimic and respect the protective mechanisms deployed by Nature. He was made a Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour by the President of the Italian Republic and always advocated for the need for a very strong osmosis between Italy’s academic world and industry. His passion for neuroscience brought him into contact with Rita Levi-Montalcini, with whom he shared a portion of his journey and reasoned for years in an ongoing exchange of mutually-stimulating ideas and projects. One of the last fields of interest developed regarded neuroinflammation, as a potential contributor to myriad disorders, from neuropathic pain to dementia.
Francesco della Valle and Rita Levi Montalcini
Francesco della Valle, the man who, in life and in his work, always put ideas first. Everything else took second place; everything else was marginal, surmountable, less important. He vested ideas with absolute power; ideas meant in the broadest sense as concepts, intuitions, but also projects, rationales and visions. Ideas as something to be nurtured and grown, exchanged, shared with the researchers, even the youngest ones, who were capable of looking far ahead.
Qualifications and acknoledgements
- 1980 – Gold Medal for Merit in Education, Culture and Art of the Italian Republic
- 1985 – Knight of the Grand Cross of the Italian Republic
- 1987 – Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour of the Italian Republic
- 1988 – Honorary Degree in Pharmacy, University of Padua
- 1989 – Honorary Degree in Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Georgetown University in Washington, USA
- 1993 – Honorary degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Ferrara
