NHS net pharmaceutical expenditure down in the first quarter of 2018: -5.2% compared to the same period of 2017, according to the data just released by Federfarma.
The number of SSN recipes decreased (-0.8% vs 2017) and, to a greater extent, the average value of the recipe (net -4.4%; gross -3.3%) and 
therefore of the average price of drugs prescribed in the conventional regime from €9.52 in the first quarter of 2017 to €9.10 in 2018.
The contribution of pharmacies to contain spending is high. On the one hand, with the dissemination of equivalents and the free supply of all data on NHS drugs, on the other with the discount by price range, which produced savings of around 84 million euros in the first quarter of 2018, to which to be added approximately 17 million deriving from the 0.64% portion of the so-called pay-back, charged to pharmacies starting from 1 March 2007 and always extended, aimed at compensating for the failure to reduce the price of a series of medicines by 5%.
“To these heavy charges – underlines Federfarma in a circular – “since 31 July 2010, the withholding of 1.82% on pharmaceutical expenditure has been added, increased, since July 2012, to 2.25%. This additional deduction resulted in a cost for pharmacies quantifiable in the period in question at over 47 million euros. Overall, therefore, the direct contribution of pharmacies to containing spending, in the first three months of 2018, was over 148 million euros".
On the other hand, the growth trend of participation fees paid by citizens continues, the incidence of which on gross expenditure went from 14% in January-March 2017 to 15.4% in January-March 2018; the increase is linked to the constant increase in the difference paid by citizens with respect to the reference price.
