by Maria Lardara
LAWN. Seacor and free treatment for heart attacks, full stop. Two months ago, it was the complaint, through the Tyrrhenian Sea, by Enrico Lai, a 58-year-old worker with a heart attack, who raised the case after the decision by Aifa (Italian Medicines Agency) to remove preparations with the Omega 3 molecule from the national pharmaceutical handbook.
At the end of April, the loanability of Seacor had been restored, following a sentence by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court which had upheld the appeal of a pharmaceutical company, suspending the drug agency's decision for six months.
Yesterday however, yet another cold shower for heart patients like Lai who will return to pay for that medicine. That he should have reached for his wallet, he realized when the general practitioner handed him the blank recipe for the prescription. In spite of himself, the victim of an arm wrestling in the Court which, at the end of May, saw AIFA win the appeal to the Council of State against the sentence of the Lazio TAR in April.
The tape is rewinding, therefore: the Omega 3 drugs have been relocated to class C (not paid for by the National Health Service), and therefore return for a fee. Lai's wife, Mrs. Domenica, recounts the bitter discovery this morning in the clinic. "Here we go again. How is it possible that a drug so much used for heart therapy should be paid for?». A pack of Seacor costs around 20 euros and, in Mr. Lai's case, the post-infarction therapy must go on for a year. His outburst in the Tyrrhenian Sea, that of a worker in difficulty, forced to pay out of his own pocket for treatment, triggered a solidarity marathon from different areas of Tuscany with various relays to deliver medicines to the Lai home. Tommaso Venezia found himself living in the same situation, another stroke patient without work and with a family of five to support.
07 June 2013 THE TYRRHENIAN LAWN
