BioXell: A New Beginning for Italian Biotech

Immunology start-up BioXell SPA is the latest addition to Italy's nascent biotech industry. Like most other biotechnology firms in a country which hasn't encouraged raw start-ups or done much to foster the commercialization of academic research, BioXell is a spin-off, in this case from Roche 's Italian subsidiary Roche Milano Ricerche. Yet BioXell is slightly unusual in that the company's management created it before its former parent had decided to close down the operation. Most other biotechs were created as political conveniences: as Big Pharmas have pulled up research stakes in Italy, thanks to better reimbursement and richer scientific soil elsewhere, they've had to leave behind self-sustaining organizations to continue to employ the people who would otherwise be out of jobs. Thus, start-ups in Italy begin with a relatively rich asset base—the abandoned research and facilities of their parents—but with little local infrastructure to help with their financing and commercial development.

BioXell may signal a small change in this environment—first, in the confidence of its managers to proactively create a new business and second, in some more-generous-than-usual government support. Indeed, a...