By Editorial board on October 19, 2012
Yesterday's news was the agreement reached between AIFA, Fedefarma, ADF and Assofarm on the new remuneration of pharmacies and wholesalers. A remuneration that is made up of a lump sum and a percentage on the price of the ex-factory drug which has the advantage of homogenizing the treatments at a national level by eliminating the distortions that currently characterize the reimbursements of Regions at pharmacies.
So apparently everything seems to be fine. But is it really so? No, we believe that this could be an opportunity for a real spending review in this sector. Restructuring the drug distribution process, starting with the phase of determining the purchase price of the NHS drug, to make those savings on pharmaceutical expenditure, which alone make it possible to finance the professional services necessary to guarantee qualified assistance in the area for the most needy patients. In fact, it is not understood why the regions can buy the drugs directly from the pharmaceutical companies with a discount of at least 50%, while for those distributed by pharmacies he has to pay the same pharmaceutical companies an amount equal to 65% of the price of the drugs, with a deadweight loss of at least one billion euros. A gift to pharmaceutical companies and perhaps also to intermediate distributors? And we still wonder why Federfarma didn't demand the alignment of purchase prices given that it would have favored the passage of drugs in DD and DPC to the pharmacy?
