Italy’s $10 Billion Pharma Family Makes A U.S. Power Move

F

or much than 100 years, the billionaire Angelini family had been contented to tally a mostly European business empire from their office successful Rome: pharmaceuticals for illustration the Italian balanced of Tylenol and the antidepressant trazodone, arsenic good arsenic a robotics business, wineries (of course) and a associated task pinch Procter & Gamble to waste Pampers and different user products successful their autochthonal Italy.

But aft erstwhile banker and rule professor Sergio Marullo di Condojanni joined Thea Paola Angelini, now the family’s fourth-generation controlling shareholder, successful 2017, the 2 began plotting a awesome description of Angelini Pharma, its supplier business. By 2024, they’d group their sights connected the largest and astir innovative pharmaceutical marketplace successful the world.

“What was clear from the opening is that the U.S., successful the pharmaceutical space, is mandatory,” Marullo di Condojanni, 48, tells Forbes.

Last November, Marullo di Condojanni zeroed successful connected Coral Gables, Florida-based Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused connected uncommon diseases that was past publically traded. During a gathering pinch its CEO Rich Daly astatine the swanky Chancery Rosewood edifice connected London’s Grosvenor Square, which had erstwhile been the U.S. embassy, Marullo di Condojanni turned connected the charm. “He’s very Italian—dressed to the nines,” Daly says. The 2 bonded complete their attack to supplier development, and the measurement that their companies—one successful the U.S. moving connected uncommon neurological and neuromuscular diseases, the 1 extracurricular the U.S. looking astatine encephalon disorders for illustration epilepsy and depression—could fresh together.

In May, pinch the thief of Blackstone and Italy’s CDP Equity, Angelini Pharma agreed to salary $4.1 cardinal successful rate to bargain Catalyst, a premium to its marketplace headdress astatine the time. The deal, which closed successful July, catapulted the Italian patient into the United States and the rare-disease market.

While Angelini is small known successful the United States, it has a agelong and storied history successful Italy. With $1.5 cardinal successful gross earlier the Catalyst deal, Angelini Pharma is the largest portion of the Angelini family’s broader group, Angelini Industries, which rang up full gross past twelvemonth of immoderate $2.5 billion. Forbes estimates that Thea Paola Angelini and family are worthy immoderate $10 billion. The 39-year-old is the controlling shareholder, though her father, Francesco Angelini, 80, retains some a number liking and further economical authorities successful her mostly position.

“Entrepreneurs are starting to alteration the accepted move that you enactment successful Europe, you enactment successful Italy.“

Family-owned businesses often flounder aliases waste disconnected astatine the 3rd generation, and moreover less past and thrive into the fourth. But Thea Paola Angelini (whose attraction is the family’s philanthropy and who declined to speak pinch Forbes) and Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, who is CEO of some Angelini’s genitor institution and Angelini Pharma, had greater ambitions than moving a sleepy institution that churns retired rate from narcotics invented successful the ‘50s and ‘60s. “We decided we needed to rekindle the invention communicative that had been present galore years ago,” Marullo di Condojanni says. Along pinch buying Catalyst, the group besides group up its ain mini task fund, seeded pinch $350 cardinal successful capital, to put successful promising life-sciences startups, specified arsenic Switzerland-based Nouscom, which is moving connected a crab vaccine.

Expanding to the U.S. is an different move for an Italian company. In Italy, the mostly of companies are family-owned and galore enactment focused wrong Europe. “The caller procreation was much ambitious,” says Alessandro Zattoni, a professor of strategy astatine Luiss Business School successful Rome, who has written a lawsuit study of the Angelini family business. “Entrepreneurs are starting to alteration the accepted move that you enactment successful Europe, you enactment successful Italy,” he says. “Coming to the States is not easy, but if you win you person a immense market.”

Back successful December 1919, Francesco Angelini (Thea’s great-grandfather), past a 32-year-old pharmacist, started a mini business for the accumulation and waste of medicinal products successful Ancona, a larboard metropolis connected Italy’s Adriatic coast. Today, Angelini Pharma is possibly champion known for 2 drugs: an anti-flu medicine based connected acetaminophen, called Tachipirina, launched successful the 1950s that’s fundamentally the Italian balanced to Tylenol and is 1 of the top-selling medications successful Italy; and trazodone, an antidepressant its researchers discovered successful the 1960s that remains wide used.

Over the years, while different supplier companies pushed the boundaries of science, Angelini made incremental innovations connected its existing drugs. Meanwhile, the broader Angelini group made forays into unrelated areas, buying up a fragrance business successful Spain and—this being Italy—wineries successful Tuscany, wherever its Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella received a perfect 100-point rating from vino professional James Suckling. Francesco Angelini (Thea’s father), who had taken complete the business successful 1993 erstwhile his ain begetter died, had engineered a number of these acquisitions.

“We decided we needed to rekindle the invention communicative that had been present galore years ago.“

Thea Paola Angelini, who received a grade successful compartment and molecular biology from Tor Vergata University successful Rome, started her profession conducting investigation astatine the company’s Santa Palomba laboratories. She has been president of Angelini Holding, the genitor institution of Angelini Industries, since June 2025.

She and Marullo di Condojanni met done a communal friend successful Rome. A lawyer pinch a PhD successful home and world arbitration from Luiss Guido Carli University, he had antecedently been a rule professor and a committee personnel of Banca Aletti, the backstage banking limb of Banco BPM Group. After their matrimony successful 2017, he excessively joined the family firm. (They unrecorded successful Rome and person 3 young children.)

In 2018, Thea’s begetter Francesco, past successful his early 70s, transferred the controlling liking successful the business to her. It sewage messy, fast. Thea’s older half-sister, Maria Gioella Angelini, accused her of exploiting an incapacitated personification and asked the Court of Velletri to name a ineligible administrator to protect her begetter Francesco’s interests. The tribunal dismissed her claims successful September 2022. Angelini Industries, successful a press merchandise astatine the time, called it “a decree of definitive dismissal” that “sanctioned the groundlessness of the accusations.” The ineligible proceedings had “no impact” connected the governance of Angelini Industries, the institution said.

The conflict played retired publically successful the Italian press, pinch La Repubblica calling it “The Angelinis’ Dallas,” in reference to the TV bid astir a fictional able lipid family.

“It was painful,” Marullo di Condojanni says. “In the end, we came up pinch a coagulated superior building and a shareholder successful control. It ended up well, but the process was painful.”

With the 4th procreation successful control, Marullo di Condojanni refocused the European supplier business connected encephalon disorders. In 2021, Angelini Pharma bought Swiss biopharma institution Arvelle Therapeutics for up to $960 cardinal to get European authorities to its anti-seizure supplier for epilepsy, which is designed for adults whose seizures don’t respond to different treatments. More than 50 cardinal group worldwide suffer from epilepsy, including some 6 cardinal successful Europe.

Then, successful May 2025, Angelini acquired the non-U.S. authorities for different supplier that treats a rare, familial type of epilepsy from New York City-based Grin Therapeutics for up to $570 million. Earlier this year, it announced a strategical investigation collaboration pinch Cambridge, Massachusetts-based AI drug-discovery startup Quiver Biosciences to activity connected caller therapeutics for familial epilepsies.

“Strategically, we decided to double down connected epilepsy and build connected our bequest successful encephalon health,” says Rafal Kaminski, Angelini’s main technological officer, who had antecedently worked astatine UCB Pharma successful Belgium and Roche successful Switzerland.

The standard of the Catalyst deal, astatine $4.1 billion, dwarfs those earlier acquisitions, giving Angelini a measurement into the uncommon illness market. With 3 commercialized narcotics successful the market, it besides instantly accrued Angelini Pharma’s gross by immoderate $600 cardinal — astir 40%.

The biggest of Catalyst’s 3 commercialized narcotics is for a uncommon neuromuscular autoimmune upset called Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, aliases LEMS, which causes musculus weakness that tin moreover make it difficult to respire aliases swallow. The illness is brutal, but it affects just 2.8 cardinal group worldwide and immoderate 400 successful the United States. Sales from the LEMS curen accounted for two-thirds of Catalyst’s $149 cardinal successful gross successful the first 4th (ended March 31), earlier the acquisition.

With truthful fewer patients, uncommon diseases are a analyzable market. But that tin create abstraction for a caller institution to break in. Giant illness areas for illustration crab require large income forces to bring a supplier to market, making title against pharma giants that tin deploy specified an service overmuch much difficult. In uncommon diseases, location are fewer monolithic companies, the biggest being Vertex Pharmaceuticals (market cap: $134 billion). Marullo di Condojanni figures Angelini tin summation a foothold—and grow from there.

The time aft the Catalyst statement was announced, Marullo di Condojanni gathered the activity squad astatine its Rome headquarters, which was renovated six years agone into a modern 320,000-square-foot analyzable pinch vertical greenish walls and gardens. “We were each expecting he would say, ‘Well done, we did a bully job, and now we tin relax,’” says Agnese Cattaneo, Angelini’s main aesculapian officer. “He said, ‘You did a awesome job, but you cognize guys, I want to beryllium upfront pinch you. I deliberation we request to do more.’”

That sounds much for illustration a Silicon Valley CEO than the caput of an Italian family business.

More From Forbes

ForbesPeptides May Soon Be Legal. These Companies Are Ready To Cash InBy Amy FeldmanForbesDOGE Broke America’s Weather Machine. Now Fishermen, Insurers And Farmers Are Paying For ItBy Alan OhnsmanForbesBritish AI Chip Founder Becomes Europe’s Youngest Self-Made BillionaireBy Alicia Park and Iain MartinForbesHow OpenAI Plans To Win Over Doctors, Patients And HospitalsBy Amy Feldman and Rashi Shrivastava