According to Achille Caputi, president of the Italian Society of Pharmacology, hospitals can do a lot to encourage the use of generic drugs by reducing the cost of the National Health Service. It would be enough to favor the purchase of generic medicines, even if at higher prices, to activate a virtuous mechanism which would lead the local doctor who usually follows the indications of his hospital colleague, to prescribe more generics in the long run. Caputi sees the involvement of hospital therapeutic commissions as the key to concretely promoting the turning point: "Inside hospitals – he explains – when tenders are held for the purchase of medicines, the purchase of generics should be favored in every way , even if this involves a price increase. The use of the drug in hospitals, in fact - continues the expert - is limited, while the disbursement, in terms of prescriptions in the area, takes a long or even very long time. if the patient leaves the hospital because he suffers from gastroesophageal reflux, for example, he has an indication for a specialty because the hospital bought that medicine at lower costs in a tender, with considerable discounts. consider the real savings, which must be calculated over longer periods".
Source "Farmacista33"
