(AGI) - Rome, April 7. – The pharmaceutical one is one of the most dynamic industrial sectors in the world and in Italy, with strategic importance of the distribution chain. The high rate 
of productivity and the growth of our country's exports make it of primary interest for the whole economy. The world pharmaceutical market has doubled in the last 10 years and world sales exceeded the psychological threshold of 1 trillion dollars for the first time in 2014. But Italian pharmaceutical spending is lower than the European and US average, while the distribution takes place through a network of over 18,000 pharmacies.
It is what emerges from Report on the pharmaceutical industry prepared by the Research & Investor Relations Area of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The report deals in particular with the formation of drug prices and distribution, a highly structured and widespread segment of economic activity. Even in Italy, despite the very difficult economic context in 2013, the pharmaceutical sector had grown by just under 6%, with 72% of the entire production destined for export. The report highlights that the formation of the retail price originates not only from research and development costs (about 40% of the total) but also from the contributions of import activities.
Wholesale, retail and the tax component account for the remaining part, equal to approximately 60%. Analyzes of accredited institutes show that however the costs that must be borne by companies to complete the drug approval process have increased by 145% during the last 10 years, an average compound annual growth rate of 8.5%. Some clichés are debunked, such as the myth that health expenditure is high when it represents only 9% of GDP against the 12% of the European average and even 17% in the USA. Even the international comparison of drug prices highlights how those practiced in Italy are not high compared to the foreign average: recent studies highlight how the prices of pharmaceutical products in our country are 14.6% lower than the European average .
Great is the growth of the distribution sector which is described on a structural and quantitative level: Il Research service of Banca MPS has elaborated an index, MPS-PHD, based on the stock market prices of the main worldwide distribution companies. The index tripled in the period 2011-2015 and increased by 36% during 2014 alone. The capillarity of pharmaceutical distribution throughout Europe is also very important, where there are over one hundred thousand pharmacies: in Italy alone there are over 18 thousands.
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Price of medicines: six euros out of ten derive from costs other than research
