The availability and appropriate use of drugs for cardiovascular, respiratory and nervous system pathologies, which account for 53% of total mortality and disability due to chronic diseases, allows for a net cost saving for the National Health System equal to approximately 12 billion euro a year, of which 6.4 billion (52%) represented by lower healthcare costs and 6 billion (48%) by lower indirect costs. This conclusion was reached by the study conducted by the Cer (Centro Europa Ricerche), in collaboration with Farmindustria, coordinated by Professor Vincenzo Atella, of the Faculty of Economics of Tor Vergata in Rome. The benefits due to the consumption of medicines will be even more substantial taking into account the rapid increase in the elderly population, with a peak which will be recorded between 2030 and 2040. If we also assume that medical technology remains constant at the levels expressed in 2005 , the simulation carried out made it possible to evaluate the higher costs that the health system and the economic system as a whole would bear in the absence of currently available drugs. The results clearly show that, in the absence of drugs, public health expenditure would settle on values higher by about 6% in 2005, than 10% in 2025, up to +16% in 2040. Moreover, the use of drugs for these diseases allows for savings in terms of GDP equal to 0.4% in 2005, which rises up to 1.3% in 2040.
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