Dompé: «A change of pace in sector policy» – Tax bonuses for research are on the way – The table for pharmaceuticals restarts
The Government opens the doors wide to the revival of the pharmaceutical industry. The Minister for Economic Development, Claudio Scajola, promises it: "It is a vital sector of our country that must be maintained and helped", but without funding in the rain. The Undersecretary for Welfare with responsibility for medicines, Ferruccio Fazio, relaunches and goes further, announcing tax breaks for biomedical research complete with a reduction in social security contributions, in addition to the imminent restart of the "table" for pharmaceuticals. On the day of its thirtieth anniversary celebration, Farmindu – stria collects promises and acknowledgments from the Government. And now he waits for words to turn into deeds, recalling the dark times of Berlusconi's 16 maneuvers in five years: "But today it would no longer be possible", confide the drug manufacturers. «The conditions – comments Emidio Stefanelli, official voice of the pharmaceutical SMEs – are very different from those of 2001: tickets had been abolished; spending had exploded. Now everything is under control ». "It should by now be clear to everyone that the pharmaceutical industries are a pillar of the Italian economy: there can be no other interventions in the sector", comments the patron of SigmaTau, Claudio Cavazza. Or: «One who invests the 20% in research», as Dompé does not fail to point out. Industries for 15 years now in the midst of repeated manoeuvres, price cuts, revenues that no longer shine like in the good old days, big pharma that is now devouring itself, the pharmaceutical companies operating in Italy are launching almost the last appeal to guarantee the relaunch. Maybe, who knows, a safe future. Or less uncertain. And last Thursday, at the Farmindustria annual assembly – which celebrated its 30th birthday just like the NHS – the industrial parterre fully recognized itself in the words of its president, Sergio Dompé, who asked to definitively leave behind three decades of short-term industrial policy. Not without underlining the "courageous entrepreneurial choices made in years in which the temptation to leave Italy was strong". But now "the temptation has been overcome", Dompé swears, with the desire to bet on Italy and its excellence. Foreign investors are also betting on Italy, creating turnover of 400 billion euros a year and employing 800,000 workers, as pointed out by Angelos Papadimitriou, president of the Technical Committee for foreign investors in Italy of Confindustria and vice president of Farmindustria. "The 75% of those who invest in Italy are satisfied with the results obtained and with the Italian workers, who on their side have a high rate of innovation and flexibility", he explained. The problems, he added, launching an explicit message also in view of a possible reorganization of the regulatory framework "are not taxation or incentives: shareholders can understand the lack of funds, but not the delays in placing innovative products on the market". In summary: once the relaunch has been made, pharmaceutical companies no longer really feel like risking endlessly. Fertile ground and granite certainties are needed for investments that are never as risky as in the life sciences, just like a hand of poker. This is why Dompé has reclaimed the pharmaceutical industry's pride in being and doing business, but always within the path of business ethics. Which can then be summed up in specific pride: «Drugs are a democratic health resource,
