The spending review provision which introduced the prescription for active ingredients must be removed as soon as possible. It is the strongest of the requests that Farmindustria put down in black and white in the settlement meeting of the table on pharmaceuticals, opened the day before yesterday at the Ministry of Development. There were several seats (operators in the sector and confederal trade unions, the Regions and the departments of Health, Economy and Research, Aifa and Agenas were present) one goal, summarized at the beginning by Minister Corrado Passera: «Pharmaceuticals are a d! development river, the Government wants to undertake to overcome the critical issues and facilitate the productive relaunch of the sector».
For manufacturers, the priority requirement is that of stability: in six months the drug sector has been affected by three maneuvers, from which a chronic uncertainty that prevents the slightest planning. Hence Farmindustria's request for a "Sustainability and Stability Pact" which guarantees a certain regulatory framework for at least three years. And then some of the more "fresh" measures should be urgently reviewed. Starting with the prescription for the active ingredient: "An unjust penalty that does not give any advantage to the State" said the president of Farmindustria, Massimo Scaccabarozzi, waving data that would demonstrate a minus 10% in the market shares of the "branded".
Obviously, the "other half" of the planet industry, the producers of generics, are of the opposite opinion: "The use of equivalents is a factor of savings and development, the standard cannot be touched," said the vice president of Assogenerici, Enrique Heusermann.
We will talk about it again: from the table, too long to function properly, a series of "sub-committees" will start where the problems and requests of the sector will be analyzed piece by piece. And where the social partners will measure the real intentions of the Government. «The point» observed Paolo Pirani, of Uil chemists «is to decide whether you want to bet on the industrial aspect of a lively sector that employs 65,000 workers directly and the same number indirectly, or you prefer a purely commercial presence».
September 13, 2012 – DoctorNews
Farmindustria, designer brands already in decline.
Scaccabarozzi, very preliminary data show a decrease of about 10%
