Starting as the Fabbrica Lombarda Ammino Acidi, the Flamma Group was founded by Dr. Marco Maria Negrisoli and his chemist wife, Edmea Kullmann, in 1950 initially to produce amino acids.
Today, 73 years later, that small operation has grown dramatically into a multimillion dollar company that makes small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), new chemical entities and late-stage intermediates for the life science industry, and acts as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for many drug companies.
Based in Chignolo d’Isola in the Lombardy region, the Flamma Group also has other sites in Italy, China and the United States. Despite its global expansion, the company remains family-owned and run by second-generation President and CEO GianPaolo Negrisoli. Third-generation family member Gian Marco is actively involved in corporate activities and is general manager of Flamma USA.
“Towards the beginning of this century, just after having built a new site in Italy, we decided to have our own manufacturing site in China. The combination of Italy and China sites for early stage pharmaceutical development of small molecules helped to lead the rapid growth of the Flamma Group over the last 15 years,” said Negrisoli.
Negrisoli recalled there were only 12 employees when he joined the company, which now employs around 800 people.
Meanwhile, Executive Director and Global Business Head Fabrice Cornille, Ph.D. believes the research and development capabilities of the Flamma Group are among the key differentiators for becoming a preferred partner of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, including those based in Japan.
“In working with a Japanese company, you need to reach a higher level of understanding of your job,” Cornille said.
