"It can only arouse bitterness that, in the controversies that have arisen in recent days around the appointment of a new member of the Board" of administration of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), "appointed by the Minister of Health, Professor Silvio Garattini, founder and director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, expressions have been used by the new member such as to suggest that he is the sole guarantor of the independence of the Board and for these reasons the subject of attacks aimed at weakening his position".
The president of the Board of Aifa Sergio Pecorelli and the councilors Romano Colozzi, Gloria Saccani Jotti and Giovanni Bissoni write it in a note. "The AIFA Board of Directors - they continue - is characterized by the high profile of the its members, absolutely independent personalities of proven scientific and professional stature.
The Board has always considered independence as one of the founding principles of the Agency and has devoted great attention to the identification and management of conflicts of interest.
Lastly, we note the approval of resolution no. 7 of 26 January 2012, an ad hoc Regulation which has recently become standard and which identifies among conflicts of interest membership of organizations that receive grants or sponsorships from pharmaceutical companies, even if the subject does not receive any personal profit from such activities ". "The directors, sure of Professor Garattini's independence, welcomed the public declarations with which he wanted to reconfirm it, in the awareness that his adherence, like ours, to the dictates of the new Regulation will only further certify the transparency and independence advocated.
In conclusion, it is important to underline how the BoD has always intended to operate exclusively with a view to guaranteeing the independence of the Agency in order to ensure the achievement of the institutional goals, ie the protection of citizens' health and the balance of the pharmaceutical system.
It is therefore desirable that in the debates around the role of AIFA respect for the
