Theoretically it was OTC and SOP but, also given the presence of Nello Martini, general manager of AIFA, the presentation of the 2007 Report of ANIFA was an opportunity to deal with all aspects of the pharmaceutical service. And the discussion, inevitably, started with expenditure. "The data for January-May 2007, compared to the same period in 2006, indicate that the overall expenditure on pharmaceuticals and hospitals remains within the 16% ceiling set by the Budget," he said Martini, indicating that the trend reported by the Court of Auditors for 2006 has been reversed. “Consequently – highlighted Martini – this is the first time, during the year, that we have succeeded in managing expenditure to arrive at the end of 2007 not with a deficit but with an expenditure level compatible with the ceiling. If this is the case, it means that we can move from spending governance to an approach to the drug sector in terms of development, research and investment". Martini in fact reiterated the need to create a drug platform that is compromised between the government of spending and the development of the sector.
“We need to build a perspective that takes into consideration the fact that, in 2005, our pharmaceutical market was the fifth largest in Europe, despite all the problems it had and still has. The problem – he underlined – is therefore not the size of the market, but the absence of a medium-long term policy that looks at pharmaceuticals as a way of development and welfare”. But there is not only the approved expenditure, and the AIFA director has also provided the data relating to the ethical and free sale range C, albeit in terms of volumes. In the first four months of 2007, there was an increase in packs sold in Italy of 2.8%, compared to the same period of 2006, which was accompanied by a 3.4% increase in pharmaceutical expenditure paid by the citizen, equal to 1,841 million euros. According to AIFA, therefore, 218 million packs of these products were sold in the first four months of the year, divided into 83 million OTC (+3.1%), 33 million SOP and 103 million ethical belonging to the same category C (+2.6%). “Italian pharmaceutical expenditure in 2006 amounted to 23.2 billion euros – Martini recalled – and, of these, almost 6 for category C. But it is good to remember that the National Health System reimburses 70% of the medicines available in the country , making it among the most supportive, if not the most supportive, in the world”. And on range C, during the round table hosted by the conference, the question on the possible sale outside the pharmacy channel could not be missing. A question to which Martini answered by saying that he prefers to talk “rather than about class C drugs in supermarkets, about a retraining of the pharmacy and pharmacist. The real problem is understanding what the role of the pharmacy could be in perspective: whether a role more linked to commercial or health aspects".
On the other hand, the illustration of the data relating to self-medication drugs only resulted in a controversy. ”We have witnessed – explained the director of ANIFA Luciano Ragni, presenting the data from the 2007 Report – also a decrease in the 7% as regards revenues deriving from sales. And in the first months of 2007 the figure seems to be confirmed, with a stable number of packs sold and a slight contraction in revenues”. In Italy, the best sellers are self-care drugs for colds and flu (27%), digestive disorders (19%) and analgesics (16%). According to ANIFA, the first Bersani law on liberalisations, one year after its entry into force, has therefore not had an amplifying effect on the sales of over-the-counter medicines, despite the opening of alternative commercial channels to pharmacies. “This po
“We need to build a perspective that takes into consideration the fact that, in 2005, our pharmaceutical market was the fifth largest in Europe, despite all the problems it had and still has. The problem – he underlined – is therefore not the size of the market, but the absence of a medium-long term policy that looks at pharmaceuticals as a way of development and welfare”. But there is not only the approved expenditure, and the AIFA director has also provided the data relating to the ethical and free sale range C, albeit in terms of volumes. In the first four months of 2007, there was an increase in packs sold in Italy of 2.8%, compared to the same period of 2006, which was accompanied by a 3.4% increase in pharmaceutical expenditure paid by the citizen, equal to 1,841 million euros. According to AIFA, therefore, 218 million packs of these products were sold in the first four months of the year, divided into 83 million OTC (+3.1%), 33 million SOP and 103 million ethical belonging to the same category C (+2.6%). “Italian pharmaceutical expenditure in 2006 amounted to 23.2 billion euros – Martini recalled – and, of these, almost 6 for category C. But it is good to remember that the National Health System reimburses 70% of the medicines available in the country , making it among the most supportive, if not the most supportive, in the world”. And on range C, during the round table hosted by the conference, the question on the possible sale outside the pharmacy channel could not be missing. A question to which Martini answered by saying that he prefers to talk “rather than about class C drugs in supermarkets, about a retraining of the pharmacy and pharmacist. The real problem is understanding what the role of the pharmacy could be in perspective: whether a role more linked to commercial or health aspects".
On the other hand, the illustration of the data relating to self-medication drugs only resulted in a controversy. ”We have witnessed – explained the director of ANIFA Luciano Ragni, presenting the data from the 2007 Report – also a decrease in the 7% as regards revenues deriving from sales. And in the first months of 2007 the figure seems to be confirmed, with a stable number of packs sold and a slight contraction in revenues”. In Italy, the best sellers are self-care drugs for colds and flu (27%), digestive disorders (19%) and analgesics (16%). According to ANIFA, the first Bersani law on liberalisations, one year after its entry into force, has therefore not had an amplifying effect on the sales of over-the-counter medicines, despite the opening of alternative commercial channels to pharmacies. “This po
