The thesis in Pharmaceutical Botany on ‘Artemisia nitida’, a plant that grows in the Apuan Alpswas the key to accessing the career of Silvia Nencionisince 2009 managing director for Italy of BoironFrench pharmaceutical group, leader in the production and marketing of homeopathic medicines.
Founded in 1932 by pharmacists Jean and Henri Boiron, the company is based in Messimy, near Lyon, distributes in over 50 countries and has three production centers and 23 branches. The Italian one is located in Segrate, on the outskirts of Milan and is the first opened abroad in 1979. “The professor had chosen the plant, a species found in a couple of sites: I went with her technician time to pick it up and I brought it in the botanical garden of Pisa, at whose university I graduated in Pharmacy in June 1995. It was strange that in that faculty an experimental thesis was done in botany instead of in the much more conventional chemistry.”
Silvia Nencioni has always been passionate about medicine, and in particular about medicines. “There were no examples in my family, it was my choice, I didn’t have the vocation to become a doctor, I chose pharmacy by exclusion. When I was in high school I tried to enroll in the nursing course but at the time it was a limited number of places, I was 16 years old, the first thirty could enter: I was drawn 31st. For me it was a sign but there are also cases in life. I lost my father to cancer when I was young, we are three sisters, me the middle one, we had an exceptional mother.”
The drive to be independent and to provide financial support to her family led her to always work during university: babysitting, accompanying the elderly, after-school care. Raised in a Catholic environment, the manager attended the oratory, was an animator for small groups of children, and taught religion to lay people. “It was proposed to me to attend the Institute of Religious Sciences which gave the qualification. At the age of twenty I began to do religious substitutions in high school. Then I had to choose because I had compulsory attendance at university. At the same time I sent CVs, those were different times and within a few days a job was found.”
The choice of the company is linked to the thesis. “After graduation I was immediately asked to join another company, but I chose Boiron. At that age you rely on instinct, but for me the rational lever was linked to the passion that was being born for natural medicine, in the phytotherapeutic field”. 1995 is the year in which the European legislation on the homeopathic sector was implemented. “Not only did I not know homeopathy but perhaps I still had some prejudices. In the pharmaceutical technique book it was written ‘jump’. I still have the text in my office because it is inspiring for me and I show it to the young people who come to visit me. On one hand I had strong curiosity and on the other I had a question mark.”
Nencioni started as scientific informant of the drug in Tuscany and after three years the area manager position became available. “I proposed myself, even though I had only recently joined, and I was given this opportunity. After the first months I suggested homeopathic medicines because I saw that they actually worked and were extremely effective even in acute situations. I was responsible for the informants from Tuscany, Umbria and part of Liguria. In 2000 I was called by the boss to Milano and I was offered to coordinate all the national informants. I had a boyfriend there and this encouraged my choice to move. Since then, over the years I have had increasingly demanding tasks, without ever carrying out the same task for more than two years. I took over the scientific direction and then expanded my range of skills. Studying never ends, I participate in medical conferences, especially those on paediatrics, a field that we cultivate, and on gynaecology”.
Pontedera Tuscany, born in December 1968 under the sign of Sagittarius, Silvia Nencioni has also been president of Boiron Italia since 2012, which has a strong female quota compared to the practice of the pharmaceutical industry. 50 percent of the managers are women and the female quota represents 70 percent of the total 170 employees. “We are trying to certify the company for gender equality. Even at the top, in the management committee the ratio is one to one. The company’s turnover in our country stands at 30 million euros while that of the group is close to 500 million. And we are the second branch in the world out of 23, after the USA”. In June 2023 Nencioni also became president of Omeoimprese, the industrial association of the sector which includes thirteen Italian and foreign companies, producers and distributors of homeopathic and anthroposophic medicines in Italy, in turn registered with Federindustria. The homeopathic business sector has a total of 30 companies with over two thousand employees, including related industries made up of packaging suppliers and distributors, and generates a total annual turnover of over 200 million euros.
The manager dedicated her activity to homeopathy, deciding to remain in Boiron for all these years. “Today this science is still underused, less known than it deserves, also due to prejudices. It is a great shame because the potential of its therapeutics is enormous, not in contrast with traditional medicine. There doesn’t have to be black and white. In the end, medicine is one and all therapeutic tools are needed, nutrition is too. Of course, cancer cannot be cured with homeopathy, but I can offer patients undergoing compulsory therapies a drug that helps them tolerate chemo and radiotherapy better. Now there is the very difficult issue of ‘antibiotic resistance’: why not try homeopathics in the first 48 hours? For cultural issues, this is the approach that is missing. They want to pass off medicine as an exact science. Alas it is not. The truth is in the middle.”
How much does the economic factor influence the choice to resort to alternative medicine? “It certainly has its weight. In Tuscany there are many centers where it is possible to have a visit with a homeopath, but this is not the case everywhere. And then not everyone knows that homeopathic medicines as well as visits can be deducted by 19 percent”. In Boiron people stay for a long time, there is low turnover. “I know how complex our industry can be. In my management committee I wanted new skills, for me it is really essential to have an external eye. I have colleagues, for example, who come from Sanofi, a large pharmaceutical company with over two thousand employees, or from the mass market. My mentor Christian Boiron, the son of one of the founders, taught me how it is enriching to listen to a voice from the outside, even if certain indications bother you. And the blue quotas are necessary because thinking and doing things differently contributes to growth. Just as it seems a shame to find myself at tables that say they only have men among them.”
Granules, globules, eye drops, syrups: over the years there has been a constant increase in patients accessing homeopathic treatments, starting from the world of childhood and pregnant women and then expanding. It is estimated that around 10 million Italians use homeopathy at least once a year. Silvia Nencioni explains that there is still a stretch of road to go until homeopathy is given complete legitimacy in the eyes of the market. “There is an ever-increasing number of patients who confidently welcome what is natural. In parallel to this, there were difficulties that represented a regulatory brake. Our sector was authorized in a notified form in 1995, with all companies waiting to receive guidance on how to file the dossiers for the registration and validation of the drugs that were on the market. Hundreds of files. A very positive phase. However, the indications arrived after many years, in 2015, from the Ministry of Health and the Medicines Agency. In 2017, the companies filed the dossiers but have not yet managed to register all the drugs. We are at 60 percent. This stalemate led to a contraction of the market; now we must neutralize this effect and return to growth”. In Italy, compared to other European countries, there are also regulatory restrictions that do not allow companies to include therapeutic indications and dosages on the packaging, as well as ensuring that these drugs are communicated to the public.
What is the future of homeopathy? “For me it is true integration with medicine, without preconceptions, trying to administer the most appropriate medicine to the patient at that moment. My dream is to be able to precisely define the mechanism of action on how homeopathy works, which could allow us to make enormous progress. We are not yet certain, we are getting closer and closer, we are often attacked on the limits of chemical and physical research. But we are aware of the efficiency demonstrated by many studies, which can be consulted on databases accessible to the general public. We need to define it more precisely, so that we can at least overcome the discussion on a scientific level that is widely blocking this therapeutic.”
Speaking of passions, the priority choice for the manager is family. A 16 year old daughter in foster care, a partner. Travel follows. “Yes, they feed me. One of the best moments of my life was in Brazil, wonderful. The summer sea, made by the sea, a holiday in the Aeolian Islands on a catamaran, last summer. I go to the mountains in winter, I like to read, I recently finished a thriller by Donato Carrisi, ‘The Education of Butterflies’, I love theatre, musicals, opera. I grew up with a dog, but not now because I’m away a lot. I travel around Italy and for institutional reasons. Much more after Covid, especially in the first year, looking for health solutions for immunity, when the vaccine was not yet available”. Arnica montana, Ribes nigrum, Belladonna or ibuprofen? “In the medicine cabinet in my house you can find about fifty different granules but also tachypirin. This is what I do for my daughter’s fever. I try but if it’s not enough I switch to paracetamol.”