Drug companies are not "an ATM". They are part of an avant-garde industrial sector, which for this reason must be supported with "certain rules that allow us to work with peace of mind". While "the fact of changing the cards on the table every 6 months is a difficult thing for us to manage, and also to make our parent companies understand".
Speaking is Pierluigi Antonelli, president and managing director of Msd Italia, a subsidiary of the US Merck & Co., as well as vice president of Farmindustria and chairman of the Iapg group which represents the American pharmaceutical companies active in Italy. "The panorama of the Italian pharmaceutical industry is complicated - he observed in Milan, on the occasion of the announcement of the sale of the Comazzo (Lodi) production plant to Mediolanum Farmaceutici - The situation is not simple and we continue to see this sector managed and considered by political decision-makers a bit like an ATM, not like an industrial sector as we actually are.
We have 65,000 employees, including 15,000 researchers; we have 166 factories and an export of 60%. I don't think there are other sectors with these numbers and an equally qualified workforce. Nonetheless, in our country from 2006 to
2011 cuts of 11 billion euros were made in the pharmaceutical sector.
Only thanks to the interventions of the last two years will we see 4 billion fewer a year starting from 2012, in 2013 and in 2014". The result is that "in the last 4 years, employment has fallen by around 6,000 units – recalls the manager – and a further decline of 10% is expected between 2013 and 2014. Production decreased by 3%, and clinical trials in the last three years also decreased by 22-23%.
Of course we have to react to this kind of scenario somehow. What we ask of those who decide, both on a national and regional basis - Antonelli reiterates - is to define clear rules and guarantee certainty.".
