30/08/2012
THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. A HERITAGE THAT ITALY SHOULD NOT LOSE While the Government is preparing to approve measures for growth, the Council of Ministers will evaluate, as anticipated by the press, a decree of the Minister of Health which, together with some positive measures, contains others seriously penalizing for the pharmaceutical industry and investments in Italy. And this less than a month after the last maneuver which made the 40% of the reduction of the National Health Fund weigh on pharmaceuticals. For drug companies operating in Italy - which represent the second largest producer in Europe - it is unacceptable to undergo the third measure that changes the regulation of the sector in just six months. Real upheavals of the picture always carried out with emergency decrees on essential matters, such as public pharmaceutical expenditure ceilings, prices, reimbursements, the therapeutic handbook, prescriptions for active ingredients and drug packaging. All subjects that do not have this character. These measures were defined without the involvement and dialogue with the sector, which is available to investigate any aspect of the legislation the Minister deems useful, also to evaluate the impact on industrial planning and on investments of any new regulations. The radical change of scenario, every two months, forces companies to continuously review the planning of activities with costs and consequences that can be easily understood for an industry that instead needs certain and stable rules. So 25 billion of annual production which makes Italy the second manufacturing country in Europe after Germany, an export equal to 61% of this production, 2.4 billion euros per year of investments, 65,000 highly qualified employees and 6,000 researchers risk being in the short term just a memory and an opportunity for untapped growth. Italy is about to lose a patrimony and this cannot fail to affect the institutions, especially in a period of crisis such as the current one. And precisely at a time when he is preparing to make the measures for growth known, we expect the Minister of Economic Development to support the value of this heritage. We are faced with an attitude that denotes a de facto anti-industrial method and approach to the detriment of pharmaceutical companies, their workers and the whole country. An attack on the structure of a sector that is vital for Italy and on which, instead, we should aim to avoid decline.
