PENULTIMATE APPOINTMENT WITH EXIT: THE BUSINESS OF DRUGS from www.La7.it
Written by ILARIA D'AMICO on 10/12/2007
ELEVENTH EPISODE – Read 2340 times – 146 Comments on the website www.La7.it
Penultimate appointment with Ilaria D'Amico and the investigations of "EXIT". As usual, there will be two central themes of the broadcast on Monday 10 December from 21.05, on LA7. Obviously, as happened with great success last Monday, our editorial staff will monitor the blog to propose your ideas and your testimonies live.
THE BUSINESS OF DRUGS
Through films and surveys, we will try to shed light on the interests of pharmaceutical companies, general practitioners and pharmacists in the drug business which moves 23 billion euros every year. Generic drugs are as effective as branded ones: they have the same active ingredient, but are less expensive and could save Italians and the National Health Service up to 40% in health care costs each year. Is it the fault of the doctors who do not prescribe them, of the pharmacists who do not promote them or of the citizens who, being uninformed, prefer the "branded" ones? And what are the real economic interests of the Pharmaceutical Companies that protect their "branded" drugs? And furthermore, what is behind the resistance of pharmacists to the approval of the "third sheet" of liberalizations by Development Minister Pier Luigi Bersani?
Ilaria D'Amico discusses it in the studio with the journalist Oliviero Beha, who has always been on the front line in defense of consumers, Carlo Rienzi, president of Codacons, Achille Caputi, president of the Italian Society of Pharmacology, Emilio Stefanelli, vice president of Farmindustria, Annarosa Racca, president of FederFarma Lombardia, Mario Falconi, president of the Medical Association of Rome.
