Class C drugs, Free pharmacists: "the Minister goes to dinner with the lobby"

Imagine a gala dinner, pharmacists, the Minister of Health and the prospect of liberalizing class C medicines. Imagine the minister who says "selling medicines is not like selling mortadella". Put the free pharmacists who jump on the chair and denounce: "The Minister of Health goes to dinner with Lobby". And here the controversy over the possibility of taking the sale of class C drugs with prescription outside the pharmacies comes back to life. There is no agreement on this issue and the possibility of a liberalizing wind is getting further and further away.

23 novembre 2015 – help consumatori

This time the dispute broke out starting from the participation of the Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin at the presentation of the FarmaMagazine magazine organized by Federfarma Rome. The news of the event is on the site Pharmacist33, which collects the Minister's position on the sale of class C drugs outside the pharmacy: "The minister also focused on the rumored liberalization of class C which has returned to the air with the hearings underway at the Senate Industry Commission on the competition bill - can be read in Pharmacist33 – I repeat, Lorenzin said «selling medicines is not like selling mortadella» with reference to a recent joke of his which has aroused much controversy. «On the one hand we make a policy for the appropriate use of medicines, but on the other we plan to make the pharmaceutical product widely consumed. Instead, we must decrease the demand for drugs, not increase it», he underlined, reiterating his firm opposition to the sale of prescription medicines in supermarkets”.

Participation in the evening and the Minister's statements did not, however, escape the attention of the National Movement of Free Pharmacists who denounces: “It happens in Italy that a trade union association representing pharmacy owners organizes a gala dinner in Rome, it happens in Italy that a Minister of Health decides to go there accompanied by the President of the Lazio Region Zingaretti. It happens in Italy that the Minister of Health decides to make a long speech and, forgetting his institutional role, takes the floor to defend the interests of those who invited him. “Band C remains in the pharmacy”. “Selling medicines is not like selling mortadella”. “We have to decrease the demand for medicines and not increase it" Putting aside any judgment of opportunity on whether or not it is right for a Minister of the Republic to go to a gala dinner organized by one of the most powerful lobbies in Italy, discarding any assessment regarding the ostentation evident of the closeness to this lobby, we cannot remain silent - say the Free Pharmacists - on the unpreparedness of the Minister himself".

What the acronym once again reiterates is that class C medicines are subject to doctor's prescription: "A possible liberalization of class C medicines could not lead to any increase in the demand for medicines, because this is inelastic being linked to the doctor's prescription – says the Movement – It cannot increase. As for the mortadella, the kind Minister is reminded that SOP and OTC drugs liberalized in parapharmacies or supermarket corners (15% of the total) must be sold in separate departments and not in the midst of other articles, mortadella included”. Citizens pay for these prescription drugs out of their own pockets: “There are no more arguments to justify giving up 500 million savings for citizens, 3000/3500 new companies, 5000 new jobs, 700 million investments ”, says the National Free Pharmacists Movement.

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