#FabricheAperte: the Assogenerici tour stops at the ABC Farmaceutici in Ivrea
Fedaisf editorial staff
In the province of Turin, the second appointment of the initiative which opens the doors of the production sites to institutions, media and associations. Häusermann: "A useful operation of transparency, consistent with the aim of making the equivalent drug known and appreciated by a growing share of Italians"
Manufacturers of generic medicines open their doors to show institutions, the media, the business world and citizens' representatives the quality of their production and the socio-economic impact of a sector which employs 10,000 people in 60 companies in Italy. And they do so thanks to the #FabricheAperte tour, an initiative launched last September by Assogenerics which today stopped in the province of Turin, at the ABC Pharmaceuticals of Ivrea.
The Piedmontese one is the second appointment, three months after the stage organized in the province of Vicenza in the Zeta Farmaceutici factory in Sandrigo. Assogenerici's goal is to make the public and decision-makers aware of the productive, employment and economic value of Italian companies active in the generic drug segment. But the initiative is also an opportunity to promote correct information on the quality of equivalent medicines, the 50% of which are produced in Italy by the same companies that also synthesize them on behalf of large "branded" drug companies, following the standards of the official pharmacopoeia and the most demanding requirements of the "Good Manufacturing Practice" (GMP).
“ABC Farmaceutici holds a considerable industrial heritage, with 13 international patents to its credit,” he explains Alberto Giraudi, managing director of the Piedmontese company active since 1925. “Many molecules were born from the ABC Research Center, still present in international therapeutic handbooks, such as Doxofylline, a latest generation xanthine, leader in Italy in the pneumological sector, which recently received the designation of orphan drug from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for the indication bronchiectasis: a recognition of great value not only for the company but for Italian pharmaceuticals in general. Alongside its commitment to research - adds Giraudi - ABC Farmaceutici has always supported an active role in development and production for third parties: the Pharmaceutical Workshop of San Bernardo d'Ivrea, authorized by the Ministry of Health in 2002, is an expression of cutting-edge technology in the pharmaceutical field. With an area of over 32,000 square meters, it specializes in the production of oral solids and liquids, with a production capacity of over 30 million packages per year”.
For the president of Assogenerici, Enrique Häusermann, the initiative - which "opens the doors of Italian companies producing equivalent medicines wide open not only to doctors and public decision-makers, but also to citizens, through the involvement of the press and some representatives of various consumer associations - is also "a useful operation of transparency, consistent with the aim of making the equivalent drug known and appreciated by a growing share of Italians”.
Already today generic drugs represent 19.5% of all packs of medicines dispensed in Italy, equal to 10.7% of pharmaceutical expenditure. "However - continues Häusermann – many Italians still do not know that with their effectiveness perfectly comparable to that of the originators, the safety and quality guaranteed by a production of excellence that often takes place in Italy, and also with their lower cost, the equivalents are the main allies of therapeutic adherence and access to care, especially primary care. For this reason it is important that citizens and decision makers can ascertain that these medicines are often produced in our country, according to the highest quality standards and employing personnel almost always residing in the areas where the production centers are located. The pharmacological and therapeutic value of the equivalent is thus associated with equally significant economic and occupational values, and '#FabbricheAperte - concludes Häusermann - is an opportunity to recall that the merits of the generic drug include not only the 230 million savings a year for the NHS, but also the 10,000 jobs guaranteed to workers in the sector, in as many as 60 Italian companies".
