The 350 redundancies at Mozarc-Bellco in Mirandola reveal the failure of a project that can only be resisted with hard work "for the patients"

Mozarc-Bellco will cease production in the historic Mirandola plant, in the heart of the most important biomedical district in Europe, the third in the world after the similar industrial conglomerates of Minneapolis and Los Angeles, in the United States of America.

The news was made known on June 12, 2024, exactly seven years after the death of Dr. Mario Veronesi, the local entrepreneur who founded the company together with a "nice company" (hence the acronym “Bellco”) of collaborators and partners.

What's going on?

The key innovation of the biomedical district of Mirandola

A sad (and really inelegant?) coincidence…

The reasons that led the new owners to decide to close production are unknown, maintaining, for the moment, only research and development in the Mirandola plant, in the heart of an area dedicated to this type of activity for over sixty years and which takes its name from the Emilian town.

Evidently, it was no longer convenient to continue.

It is unfortunate that the dates coincide with the death of Mario Veronesi (“The Doctor”), which occurred on the same day in 2017, who remained particularly attached to that company, even after selling it to others.

In this regard, a personal memory resurfaces in the writer's mind.

When Medtronic purchased the company, at the beginning of 2016, it was the founder himself who told us: “I finally managed to put Bellco in order too”, speaking about it as if it were a member of the family.

That "I succeeded" suggested that "The Doctor" had played a role in the operation, however we couldn't get him to say anything more. He was reserved, as always.

Now the greatest concern is to understand whether this is an isolated episode or whether we are only at the beginning of a period of disengagement of multinationals from the sector.

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Research & Development has not generated innovation

Medtronic certainly bought Bellco, among other things paying very dearly for it, because it had an important project. What happened to that initiative, the ideas behind the project?

In 2022, during the company's fiftieth anniversary celebrations, news of the upcoming merger with US partners was already circulating, which then ended with the birth of Mozarc, and this was already a sign of a possible change of direction.

It was a choice that suggested that that first project, after six years of work, was in difficulty.

Now the Minnesota company announces the cessation of production, but the maintenance of the Research and Development sector.

“The patient at the centre”: a great hope and a meeting in the Senate

The two messages implicit in the recent disposal

In practice they are telling us two things.

The time to start production of what they are working on is so long that it does not allow them to keep the factory open.

If and when they are ready, production will unlikely take place at the site and factory in via Camurana a Mirandola, essentially stopped for too long.

In summary, it was eight years of Research and Development that did not produce any appreciable product innovation useful to the market.

It is a failure that will have very heavy repercussions on staff and the territory.

We are talking about 350 redundancies out of less than 5.000 total employees in the Mirandola Biomedical District. Too many to be reabsorbed quickly and painlessly.

The heavy damage to Italy due to the inaction of Payback policy

The scope of dialysis and the peculiarities to consider

But if a multinational like Mozarc throws in the towel after eight years of investments, what is happening in the other biomedical companies that deal with dialysis?

Insiders have long reported that the progressive reduction in margins in recent years has led to a parallel and progressive reduction in investments, with the result that dialysis machines are substantially the same as fifteen years ago, albeit with some tweaks. .

Yet the sector is not insignificant.

70 percent of dialysis treatments carried out in Italy use devices produced in the Mirandola Biomedical District (source: Baxter, Medolla, 2016) and, after the 2012 earthquake, multinationals rebuilt and expanded the factories counting on the commitment of the institutions to create finally, adequate infrastructures such as the long-awaited Cispadana motorway.

Twelve years later, it is still unknown when work will begin on this important road artery, intended to connect the Reggiolo-Rolo toll booth on the A22 with the similar Ferrara Sud junction on the A13.

Let's add to this scenario the further uncertainty caused by absurd measures such as the infamous "Payback" which we have already written about in the past, which, objectively, is a very powerful deterrent to producing in Italy and for Italy.

From Payback a stab in the back of biomedical innovation

The prospects? Also in the National Health Service

In this situation we need to be realistic, knowing that wasted time can only be recovered by working hard for many years.

We must keep in mind that the Italian production of medical devices for dialysis does not only concern the production system, workers and companies, but is of strategic importance for the National Health Service and, therefore, for the sick and patients who need those treatments to continue living in the best way possible.

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