Unicam and Indena: a perfect match between University and Company

Milan, 7 July 2022 – “Indena and Unicam, a thirty-year path of research in Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals” was the theme of the scientific conference that was held at the University of Camerino to celebrate the long-term collaboration between the university and the leading company at international level in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical sector.

During the conference, teachers and researchers from the University’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Products and School of Sciences and Technologies and representatives of Indena presented the research activities that have seen them collaborate actively, specifically on topics relating to taxanes, cannabinoids and other plants.

The conference was opened by the Unicam Rector, Claudio Pettinari and the Director of Research and Development at Indena, Pietro Allegrini.

“The collaboration between Unicam and Indena –underlined Rector Claudio Pettinari – offers an excellent example of a profitable and synergic association between university and company, as regards both research activities and training, particularly for our students working on their theses and our doctoral researchers, on topics that are fundamental for the Italian pharmaceutical industry. I was a member of the group of researchers who thirty years ago set out on a path to work on topics that are very topical today, such as green and sustainable chemistry, a clean chemistry that has the aim of replacing the use of harmful and dangerous metals with natural substances and can have the same beneficial effects. Two fundamental components for both economic and social development, business and the university, therefore, working in synergy and which I am sure will bring about great results”.

“We are proud to celebrate over thirty years of fruitful collaboration between Indena and the University of Camerino – Pietro Allegrini, Director of Research and Development at Indena, affirmed– offering virtuous evidence of the coming together of a company and the academic world. The projects realised have brought innovation in research and in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical market and now offer concrete examples of a successful cooperation that still continues with excellent prospects for the future".

In the session on taxanes, Giovanni Appendino, Ezio Bombardelli and Angelo Pisetta gave a speech on behalf of Indena and Luciano Barboni for Unicam.

In the session devoted to cannabinoids, Prof. Appendino addresses the conference, and for Unicam professors Filippo Maggi and Alessandro Palmieri.

Professor Andrea Pieroni, lecturer in Ethnobotany at the Pollenzo/Bra University of Gastronomic Sciences, spoke on the minor edible plants to illustrate the state of the art of research in this sector.

The afternoon opened with a poster session, followed by speeches by Unicam doctorate researchers Benedetta Bassetti, Noemi Pagliaricci, Eleonora Spinozzi and Diletta Piatti. The works were closed by Professor Roberto Ballini.

The meeting also offered the opportunity for guests to visit the ChIP, the “Chemistry Interdisciplinary Project”, a research centre built using innovative construction techniques to guarantee its safety in the event of earthquakes, through a project run entirely by the teachers and lecturers ofUnicam’s “E.Vittoria” School of Architecture and Design.