Roberto Cota, governor of Piedmont, against waste in the consumption of medicines: «I start by saying that it is a suggestion, I want to clarify my ideas» he told journalists on the sidelines of an event «but that of oversized packs is a problem among problems . An agreement could be evaluated with pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists to allow them to open the boxes and sell only what is necessary". The optimal packaging, in fact: we have been talking about it for years, several governments have put the topic among the programmatic interventions to contain pharmaceutical expenditure, some time ago a working group had even been formed, but nothing concrete has ever emerged . Perhaps because when it comes to the day of reckoning, it turns out that there isn't much to save: cutting a pack of twenty tablets by half doesn't mean a reduction in the price of 50%. As for the hypothesis of allowing pharmacists to open the cans and dispense only the necessary dosage, the first to frown are the white coats: "We have already written to the governor to make him understand that the idea is impracticable" explains the president of Federfarma Piemonte, Luciano Platter «perhaps Cota is thinking of what is happening in Great Britain, but there the sale of bulk tablets concerns unbranded generics, here we are talking about all the medicines of the NHS. Instead, if we want to talk about appropriateness, it would be more fruitful to involve pharmacists in monitoring patients' adherence to therapy: the real waste is the half-finished cans because the patient, often elderly, forgets to take the drug or gets discouraged."
Pharmacist33 – 28 July 2011
