Based in Atessa in the province of Chieti, founded in 1987, Taim is a family business specialising in processing plants for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food markets. In over 35 years of activity, Taim has developed expertise in design and manufacture of machinery for the pharmaceutical industry ranging from powder formulation and synthesis to granulation, coating, liquid and sterile dose production and turnkey solutions to equip entire plants. Speaking from the company is Domenico Melchiorre, second generation in Taim, who talks about the company's upcoming participation in the next Pharmintech 2025 offering a glimpse of the market in which the company has successfully operated for over 30 years. 

Innovation is a family tradition

"I am part of the second generation in the company. I have a management role in operations and administration. The company was founded in 1987 by my parents focusing on the processing market.  So we deal with machines for the pharmaceutical industry with reference to all processes, from liquid solutions, such as syrups to injectable liquid solutions including sterile implants, not forgetting all the dry form implants like granular implants, tablet coatings, and turbo-emulsifiers for creams which has allowed us to open up to the cosmetic sector.   We also produce machines ancillary to the plants such as washing and handling systems. Overall, we employ 90 people and have an annual turnover of around Euro 10 million. We operate in central Italy and from here we export all over the world. Fifty per cent of our turnover is in-fact generated overseas in our target markets which range from North Africa to Europe and from Northern Europe to the United States. So we are present all over the world but with strong roots in the home territory where we were born”.

Preview of Pharmintech

"At the trade fair we plan to be present with biotech and injectable solutions. Continues Melchiorre ”We are still deciding which technology to present, but I think that we will aim for the sterile sector, so fermentation, biotech and injectables, which is a branch we have been working in for more than 15 years now.  In fact, the goal is to exhibit our vast technological expertise through an innovative project that introduces novelties on products that are already well established in the market. So I think that Pharmintech will be the scene of a preview that we will be able to say more about in the coming months.”

A highly dynamic market that drives continuous innovation

Thinking about the increasingly dynamic and unpredictable market, a moment of reflection on Taim’s vision cannot be missed, continues Domenico Melchiorre: "Our short and medium term vision is definitely aimed at responding to increasingly high-tech requests which require continuous research capable of anticipating future standards.  Our clients are looking for new solutions, with increasing levels of technology raising the bar constantly and at an exponential rate.  Prominent among the drivers of innovation are digitalisation, for which Taim has equipped itself with a business sector dedicated entirely to hardware and software engineering, to respond -in particular- to the need for the integration of automatic machines into MES systems. Although we have now reached a good level of stability, digitalisation still plays a role, but we are also witnessing an explosion of requests for the integration of our machines into complex systems.  An important driver in this is the development of new molecules through innovative methods, from fermentation to the use of single-use devices. An approach that was probably born out of the enormous worldwide effort to develop the Covid vaccine, which also represented an injection of confidence and expectations in R&D, pushing forward research projects aimed at molecules outside Covid”.

Constant R&D to anticipate trends

The evolution of the market therefore drives a continuous evolutionary readjustment that motivates R&D, making it a corporate style in its approach to the market, a theme which Melchiorre continues to explore: "Upgrading is a constant because making machines that can satisfy the expectations of a high tech market means constantly putting ourselves back into the game to redesign –with an innovative approach- existing technology that can be improved to adhere to the increasingly stringent market requirements. This also includes cyber security, an indispensable complement to digitalisation paths and a topic approached differently by clients where multinationals and SME's share the same problems. We are well prepared on this issue, with an internal department dedicated to software that monitors cyber security issues. The perception of risk among clients is very fragmented and depends on the internal organisation and the sensitivity of how serious an attack can be for the organisation and the business. Our architecture provides secure processes for both machine access and for any third-party integrations. We have also chosen an insurance solution that protects both us and our clients from possible attacks. This reinforces all the precautions and the adoption of the most advanced solutions, keeping to Taim’s style.”