Equalia. Lack of planning by the Regions on the need for medicines. You risk a shortage

Häusermann writes to Speranza and Magrini: "Regions should plan drug supplies for the Covid emergency"

Alarm of the pharmaceutical companies involved in the AIFA crisis unit: it is urgent to quantify the needs of medicines to face the second wave of the pandemic

– Le terapie intensive sono di nuovo vicine alla soglia d’allerta e scatta l’allarme anche da parte delle industrie farmaceutiche called as in the first wave of the pandemic to ensure continuity in the supply of necessary medicines both in the first hospital line and in the second home line for less serious cases.

To signal the risks deriving from the lack of planning of needs by the Regions, in a letter sent today to the Minister of Health, Robert Hope and to the general manager of AIFA, Nicholas Magrini, is the president EGULIA, (formerly Assogenerici), Enrique Häusermann.

«Since last March, the trade associations of the drug industry in Italy have been working tirelessly with the Crisis Unit set up at AIFA, to guarantee adequate stocks of medicines used for the management of treated patients, inside and outside the intensive care, for SARS COV-2 disease. Since then, the institutional collaboration has never stopped», writes Häusermann.

«In queste ultime settimane – prosegue il presidente EGUALIA – di fronte al progredire della diffusione del virus, attraverso la suddetta Unità di crisi abbiamo aumentato il livello di attenzione per la necessità di stoccaggio preventivo dei farmaci essenziali in particolare per le terapie intensive. Da circa 4 mesi è attivo un dialogo costante con le Regioni per un progetto di quantificazione dei fabbisogni, in grado di garantire per il futuro un’adeguata fornitura dei medicinali necessari. Ma i segnali di risposta a questo progetto da parte delle autorità regionali sono, al momento, molto parziali e spesso inconsistenti».

Hence the explicit request to Speranza to "raise awareness of the Regions so that they proceed with the quantification of safety needs and provide for the purchase of the quantities of necessary medicines, allowing the Crisis Unit to respond effectively to every possible scenario".

The effect of the lack of planning worries the pharmaceutical industry, which operates through a global supply chain called to respond to the needs of all the continents affected by the pandemic.

"If we were to meet again a massive demand for medicines for intensive care without adequate planning and without the provision of specific safety stocks, the activation of the production chain cannot take place with the expected speed - concludes Häusermann - And this scenario moreover, it could not even be mitigated by any stocks at the regional level which, instead of being maintained after the most critical phase, were sent back to the pharmaceutical companies through return procedures or cancellation of orders already sent".

Comunicato Egualia – 2 novembre 2020