"Policies to support these Italian realities" would be needed. These are “companies that don't have the critical mass to focus on innovation, small companies that live off the co-marketing of products with other companies and that are in crisis because the time for blockbusters is over.
Increasingly, small Italian pharmaceutical companies in economic difficulty choose to devote themselves to the more profitable and less bureaucratic market of food supplements.
A situation that is rarely talked about, highlighted to Pharmakronos by Roberto Giampietri, adjunct professor of aspects of economics and marketing of medicines at the University of Milan, according to which "policies are needed to support these Italian realities".
The expert explains that these are “companies that don't have the critical mass to focus on innovation, that are small, that live off the co-marketing of products with other companies and that are in crisis because the time for blockbusters is over. They are therefore throwing themselves onto the market of supplements and dermo-cosmetics.
The result is, however, that pharmacies are 'overwhelmed' with these products and are unable to manage the assortments: there are about 8,500 drugs among the various indications, while parapharmacies and supplements (which still account for 30-40% of the turnover of pharmacies) are over 13,000.
But to market them, a notification to the Ministry of Health is enough. The result – he concludes – is that a huge gap is created with the big companies”.
Barbara Di Chiara -08 July 2014 – PharmaKronos
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