To support him, as scientific director, could be Giuseppe Traversa of the ISS
Today the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces gave the go-ahead to the Ministry of Health's proposal for the appointment of Nicola Magrini as Director General of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa).
The Conference of Regions has also indicated the director of the Modena Local Health Authority Antonio Brambilla (new entry) and the Councilor for the Economy of Lombardy David Caparini (confirmed) within the BoD of the Medicines Agency.
The name of pharmacologist Nicola Magrini, secretary of the WHO basic medicines committee, was presented this morning by Minister Roberto Speranza at the Conference of Regions who gave his positive opinion in the afternoon.
Magrini, That boasts 20 years of experience in the world of medicines (Click here to download the Curriculum vitae complete), was a researcher at theMario Negri Institute of Milan and is a founding member of the Cochrane Italy. Magrini is also part of the management of CEVEAS in Modena, Center for the Evaluation of Health Care Effectiveness, a body that he himself helped to found in 1999 and which aims to facilitate access to the best available evidence on treatments and cures, through the critical evaluation of the available data, their understanding and the transfer of information to doctors, decision makers and citizens.
As can be read on the site of the Modena organization, "The scientific and cultural points of reference, at the basis of all the activities of CEVEAS, are the" Evidence based Medicine " (EBM) and the " Evidence Based Health Care " (EBHC), developed in Anglo-Saxon countries and in North America over the last 10 years”. Not surprisingly, CEVEAS adheres to the Italian Cochrane Network.
“From Magrini one can expect an AIFA management strongly attentive to the most solid scientific evidence, an absolute good thing, but which could generate some difficulties in the specific field of rare diseases, where, it is known, scientific evidence is often 'less strong' due to the lack of studies on a large population, often impossible to carry out for the rare nature of the pathologies themselves”, declared the Observatory for Rare Diseases.
Alongside the name of Magrini, that of the pharmacologist also circulates Joseph Traversa, researcher at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), who in the past had already been given as a possible AIFA director. His role could be that of future scientific director.
the President of FNOMCeO, Anelli, after congratulating himself on the nomination, in a communicated he has declared: "Also in Magrini we renew the appeal, already launched to President Mantoan, to open a Table on prescription involving Doctors, those professionals who have the responsibility and competence. On the contrary, we ask that the Doctors be involved in all decision-making processes on the drug, sitting as owners at the AIFA tables".
“The prescription is one of the highest and most complex expressions of the medical profession – affirms Anelli – because it summarizes and synthesizes the anamnesis, the diagnosis, the informed consent and the therapy. For this reason, the law entrusts it to the doctor, and the Code of Deontology reiterates its autonomy, freedom, independence, urging the professional to evaluate the applicability of recommendations and guidelines to the specific case”
AIFA will have to face difficult challenges in the coming years: from the design of a new pharmaceutical governance with the overcoming of the payback as requested by the Health Pact and by Minister Speranza himself to the new pharmaceutical handbook (i.e. the list of medicines that are reimbursed by the State ) up to the use of the new Car-T, the cellular super-drugs which, despite their high costs, promise highly effective treatments for tumours. The new general manager will work with the new president of AIFA Dominic Mantovan nominated last November.
Minister Speranza declared: “I have just appointed, with the favorable opinion of all the Regions, Nicola Magrini Director General of AIFA, the Italian Medicines Agency. Since 2014 he has been Secretary of the Committee on Essential Medicines at the World Health Organization. Now come back to Italy to serve our country in a decisive sector. Our National Health Service deserves the best“.
