After the season of generics, destined to end within 5 years, it will be necessary to ride the 'wave' of biosimilars to obtain the savings necessary to guarantee access to innovative, high-cost drugs. This was underlined by the president of the National Academy of Medicine, Nello Martini, speaking of how to combine economic sustainability and innovation in his speech at the XXXIII congress of Sifo, the Italian Society of Hospital Pharmacy in Bari.
On generic drugs in Italy there are still "trails of controversy but it is not possible for the NHS to finance innovation if after 10 years of patent duration a competitive market is not created which triggers a process of generalized price reduction.
In 2012-13, with the expiry of the patent coverage on 13 active ingredients in the first year and 11 in the second, 536 million euros will be freed up. Important resources that should be used to ensure the reimbursement of innovative medicines".
In the two-year period 2010-11, 64 new medicines were eligible for reimbursement by AIFA, half of which were for hospital use, for a cost of 257 million euro.
From 2017, "all chemical drugs will lose their patent, so no new generics will enter the market". It will then be time to ride the 'wave' of biosimilars.
Adelisa Maio – October 16, 2012 – PharmaKronos
Italy, sixth market
Italy, with 24.5 billion in 2011, is confirmed as the third largest pharmaceutical market in Europe and the sixth in the world, but drops to 24th place for investments in research and development. This is the picture traced by the president of the ACC
