INNOVATIVE DRUGS AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY FOR CANCER PATIENTS
source www. courier.it 09/26/2012
MILAN - Innovative drugs for the treatment of tumors become immediately available for cancer patients thanks to the Balduzzi decree. It makes it known Honeycomb (Italian federation of voluntary associations in oncology), whose general secretary Elisabetta Iannelli speaks of "a real life-saving decree for cancer patients". The Balduzzi decree accepts one of the most important requests presented by Favo in recent months "so that innovative drugs for the treatment of tumors are made immediately available in every part of Italy immediately after registration by AIFA at a national level, without having to wait for approval by the regional and provincial commissions and subsequent inclusion in the regional therapeutic handbooks".
HEALTH PROTECTION – honeycomb e Aiom (Italian Association of Medical Oncology) already in 2010 had reported the delays and discrepancies in access to innovative drugs in the various regions where in some cases, the postponement reached more than four years before a new therapy could actually be used by the patients. We had thus arrived at a first result with the approval of the agreement on access to innovative medicines signed within the framework of the State-Regions Conference on 18 November 2010. But in 2012 a subsequent analysis of the situation, conducted by Favo and Aiom to monitor the application effectiveness of the State-Reasons agreement, while noting an improvement compared to 2011, highlighted the persistence of various critical issues in the real availability of the drug for patients. Now with this measure
