Generic drugs are an integral part of Italian pharmaceuticals and it is discouraging that they are portrayed as a threat to the sector. He answers like this Enrique Häusermann, president of Assogenerici, to the statements made by Lucia Aleotti, vice president of Farmindustria, who in a conference organized by the Italian Society of Pharmacology (see DoctorNews, 8 April 2013) spoke, among other things, of the damage caused to companies that carry out research, by the law relating to the obligation to write the name of the active ingredient on the prescription. Häusermann recalls in a note that «the 50 companies associated with AssoGenerici employ 10,000 people in Italy, and entrust the 60% for production to Italian contractors». And he adds: «We are not a foreign body to Italian pharmaceuticals, but today we are one of its protagonists». The share of pure equivalent medicines, at the end of 2012, explains the Association's note, reached 16% of medicines dispensed at the expense of the NHS, representing an expense slightly higher than the 8% of the total and in the last four years, thanks to the equivalents, the Health Service has saved around 400 million a year. «Farmindustria's classic response to these figures» continues the president of Assogenerici «and to the timid measures to promote the use of equivalents, is that the State saves anyway, given that only the reference price is reimbursed». But Häusermann argues that the reasoning does not hold water: «First of all, the reference price drops because the generic exists, not to mention what can or could be saved by prescribing biosimilars. The second aspect is that it is underestimated that the over 650 million euros spent by citizens a year to pay the difference between branded and generic products are funds taken away from the household economy and, in the end, also from the financing of the Health Service itself through the tax levy. The result of this vicious circle should also be evident to Farmindustria, given that it rightly complains of delays in the introduction of innovative medicines into regional formularies. Finally, it would be appropriate to note that the production of generics has long been joined by large research drug companies and others are arriving. So is there a generic that harms the sector and one that instead does not cause concern?» concludes Häusermann.
April 9, 2013 - DoctorNews
Related news: http://www.federaisf.org/Start/HDefault.aspx?Newsid=7718
