Emergencies and more recent news events had distracted attention from the topic, but the difficulty of finding some drugs in the distribution circuit continues to be a problem for many pharmacies. So much so that next week Federfarma and Farmindustria will meet to officially sign a memorandum of understanding which is in the final "filing" phase these days but on which there is already the political assent of both acronyms. In essence, the document provides for the establishment of a monitoring network that will serve to quickly identify moments of logistical crisis, analyze the causes and implement remedies. The hope, obviously, is that the protocol will restore some serenity in the supply chain after the sparks of recent months, when some regional Federfarma publicly denounced repeated shortages in supplies and accused producers of quotas in order to discourage parallel exports. A phenomenon, the latter, which continues to grow (due to the price differences between our country and its European neighbors on several reimbursed drugs) and which Federfarma follows with some apprehension. Also because the number of pharmacies involved seems to be increasing. In recent weeks, several owners from Calabria have been contacted by mail by a brokerage firm offering to purchase drugs for parallel export, and similar initiatives are also being echoed from Campania. It is fair to underline that these are absolutely legitimate operations, but the union's interest is to avoid negative effects on the efficiency of the supply chain and on the relationships between its players. Especially in this delicate moment.
Pharmacist33 – April 29, 2011
