Towards the pharmaceutical industry "there is absolute indifference" and "zero investments". This was stated by the president of Farmindustria, Sergio Dompé (photo), commenting, in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, on the 36 million cuts envisaged by the Milleproroghe decree approved yesterday in the Senate. In fact, pharmaceutical companies are burdened with two months of cuts of the halving of the margins of pharmacies: «Positioning the squeeze on pharmacies retroactively on companies - says Dompé - is an act of pure short-sightedness». Dompé says he is extremely worried: «What we see – he notes – is the most absolute lack of attention towards the pharmaceutical industry, a vital and driving sector for the country's economy. And this does damage to the country, not just to us ». And if this is the reference framework, asks the president of Farmindustria, "how to be competitive?" and "which investors can we still bring to Italy, if these are the prospects offered to those who even think of betting on our country?". The truth, argues Dompé, is that "new investments are now zero" and "if employment has dropped by 8,500 in three years, it was certainly no coincidence". And, in the face of a public health system in crisis, Dompé indicates a recipe: «Strike waste», he says, underlining how «in 2010, less was spent on local pharmaceuticals than 9 years ago. In the other health sectors, on the other hand, spending rose by 60%».
DoctorNews – February 17, 2011
Milleproroghe, retroactive discount for pharmacies and companies
The discounts on the margins of pharmacies (1.82%) and pharmaceutical companies (1.83%) applied since August on the basis of the provisions of the Maneuver of 31 July last are applied retroactively for the two months of validity of Legislative Decree 78/2010, i.e. from 31 May . This is foreseen by one of the paragraphs of the maxi-amendment to the Milleproroghe bill presented by the Government and approved yesterday in the Senate. It is the patch that the governors hoped to put a dam on the rising tide of disputes opened by pharmacists to recover the withholding of 3.65% on the months of June and July: around eighty million euros were at stake, which the Regions did not they intended to give up as part of a package of cuts that served to counterbalance the government's cut (600 million) to the 2010 budget for pharmaceuticals. If that money has to be returned to the pharmacies, was the reasoning of the governors, put it in Tremonti. Or find a different solution. And here is the solution, not exactly "ethically correct" from a legal point of view. Intervention was in the air (there has been talk of an amendment to the 3.65% for a couple of weeks) but few perhaps imagined a "fifty-fifty" solution like this one. Certainly not Farmindustria, which through the mouth of its president, Sergio Dompé, immediately expressed strong criticism of the provision: «By now it is clear» he said yesterday in an interview with Sole-24 Ore «in Italy they don't want us to invest, we do research, we create jobs». «The Regions had asked for an amendment that would confirm for those two months the 3.65% charged to pharmacies alone» is the comment of the president of Federfarma, Annarosa Racca «The Government and the Senate instead wanted to resume the scheme of the conversion law. It is a tax that falls on pharmacies and industries and that can only be bypassed by opening the table on the reform of remuneration". Instead, the dispute regarding the application of the discount on generics and oxygen remains unsolved
