by Roberto Turno (from Il Sole-24 Ore) itemMay 1, 2014
A 445 million sting is coming for the pharmaceutical industries. It will be the bitter fruit of the red accumulated by public spending on medicines during 2013, which resulted in a total deficit of 827 million. The vast majority caused by losses of 765 million from hospital pharmaceuticals, half of which are covered by the industries and half by the regions. Of 63 million (all borne by the entire pharmaceutical chain, from companies to distribution) was instead the deficit of the accounts for pills and syrups borne by the State sold through the pharmacy channel or distributed directly by healthcare companies.
Accounts more in order in the North, perennially poised in the South, starting with the group of four commissioned regions (Lazio, Calabria, Campania and Abruzzo): this is once again the photograph of the Italian drug that emerges from the final balance just developed by Aifa (Italian Medicines Agency) of pharmaceutical expenditure in 2013, presented the day before yesterday to the Board of the Authority. A group check that always leaves too many questions open and that once again reveals the substantial difficulties of keeping spending budgets (the "ceilings") at least in half of Italy. But above all for the hospital accounts, given the tightness of the pharmacy budgets.
Looking ahead, the end of the entry of new generics, which up to now have acted as a shock absorber for the increase in spending, could tip the scales towards an increasingly uncertain future. While the entry of new products at sometimes almost impossible costs (from hepatitis C to cystic fibrosis, but not only) is destined to create a serious problem of sustainability of pharmaceutical coverage within a few years, at least in its current forms.
Luca Pani, general manager of Aifa explains: "With the innovations on the way, over time the global value of the two expenditure ceilings, for the territorial and for the hospital, will have to rise in total to at least around 16%, naturally keeping in place all the necessary economic and prescriptive controls". With an ever more attentive eye, Pani adds, precisely towards the regions with the accounts (and behaviours) in the red.
Meanwhile, the 2013 data processed by AIFA tell more truths. Starting from the drop of 1.4% recorded by expenditure in the pharmacy, which scored a total of 8.86 billion, and instead from the increase
