Four amendments to the Development Decree remove the obligation to prescribe the active ingredient. The rule had entered into force three months ago amidst a thousand controversies. Foresti (Assogenerici): "Another attempt by the Farmindustria lobby to block the generic market".
20-11-2012 Marino Petrelli Panorama.it
No more obligation for doctors to prescribe the active ingredient instead of the "designer" drug, but only the option "to add the name of the active ingredient contained in the drug". They establish it four amendments to the development law decree presented by deputies of UDC, Lega, Pdl and Pd. A proposal that causes discussion and which according to Minister Balduzzi would be "an individual initiative of individual senators, not of the parties". The government has given a favorable opinion to the amendments through the Undersecretary for Economic Development Claudio De Vincenti and they will be voted on in the commission today after the opinion of the Budget commission. De Vincenti himself, approached by journalists on the sidelines of a conference at Luiss, declared that "the market is distorted and citizens must be made to choose freely. The law, as it stood, was unbalanced in favor of generics since pharmacists have a margin higher than 8 percent".
Even harder Giorgio Foresti, president of Assogenerics that a Panorama.it expresses his disappointment. “I believe it is the umpteenth attempt by the Farmindustria lobby to block the development of the generic drug market, with the belief that this gives the national pharmaceutical sector the opportunity to survive or to be able to continue to exist – says Foresti -. It is not this amendment that will destroy the pharmaceutical sector, it will not change the fate of Italian pharmaceuticals
