«An unfair maneuver, which shifts market shares creating a heavily negative impact on pharmaceutical industries which are denied the right to compete» the president of Farmindustria Massimo Scaccabarozzi returns to attack the spending review of last August, on the sidelines of a press conference in Milan for the forthcoming market launch of telaprevir, a new drug against hepatitis C which, in association with standard therapy, promises to halve the duration of treatment in naïve or relapsing patients. In the crosshairs of the president of Farmindustria the law that introduced the prescription for active ingredients «a law to be repealed because it serves no one and is limited to shifting market shares that shouldn't be shifted by the state but by normal competition». The press conference is also an opportunity to reiterate the perplexities about the latest, the «umpteenth» explains Scaccabarozzi, Balduzzi maneuver, a maneuver that «could have been spared, after the spending review, moreover made with a decree and with urgency that we do not recognize". There are two critical points in the vision of drug manufacturers: "To begin with, the revision of the Formulary, which Aifa is entitled to carry out at any time", not only "also the rule that expands the off-label use of drugs, the yet another blow to the search». In practice, explains Scaccabarozzi «it is possible to use a drug for a different use than that for which it was put on the market, without authorisation, without a dossier and without experimentation, i.e. without a regulatory process, only on the basis of economic logic, that is, because it costs less». A provision which, according to Scaccabarozzi, makes the regulatory process anachronistic and "dangerous even for patients, who are treated with drugs that have not been sufficiently tested". Now the next stage will be the table on pharmaceuticals launched "late" by Minister Passera. «We hope it is a starting point» underlines the president of Farmindustria «we are willing to do our part to the end, but playing correctly» he concludes.
Marco Malagutti – September 25, 2012 – DoctorNews
Editor's note: In the context of free competition in the internal market, and in particular in the context of opening up public services to competition, Member States sometimes intervene through state resources to promote certain economic activities or protect certain national industries.
