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Foresti (Assogenerici): a cultural intervention that doctors must not boycott

The first real cultural promotion intervention adopted in this country in support of the generic. For Giorgio Foresti (photo), president of Assogenerici, there is no better definition to give to the controversial article in the spending review on prescription by active ingredient. And to the doctors who have attacked the text in recent weeks, the leader of the producers issues a warning that does not need translations: «Minister Balduzzi wanted to give the provision all the gradualness that could be given, avoiding drastic measures and caesuras. Now let's see what the prescribers will do, because if the resistances remain confirmed, the only way to! the prescription for active principle and stop will be valid, without exceptions».

President, the Ministry has promised doctors a technical table on prescriptions where the subject will certainly be addressed again. In the meantime, how do you welcome the intervention?

One step towards Europe, that's all. The real question now is how the medical establishment will react. If he does not quickly understand that this provision does not aim to limit his decision-making area but to strengthen the sustainability of the NHS, he will open the door to even stronger measures.

Doctors say their only concern is making sure the patient gets the prescribed medication…

And I still don't understand why in Italy people continue to insist on this key when in the rest of the world they don't talk about it. It's a matter entirely ours, due to counter-information fueled by insiders and incompetent press. It's a refrain that has come back into fashion in recent days, sung by doctors and pharmacists with their names and surnames: minus 20 % of active ingredient, Chinese or Korean generics made under the stairs, small pharmaceutical companies born out of nowhere, lack of controls, etc. I will limit myself to recalling that in Italy in recent years the withdrawals of generic packages have been lower than those of branded drugs. And the statistics of the national pharmacovigilance system do not report significant increases deriving from the marketing of generics.

Doctors are also asking for an Orange Book like that of the American FDA…

It is a tool that can be rapidly adopted in Italy too, by reviewing the transparency lists mechanism and adding the technical-scientific information requested by the prescribers. But this would not change anything with respect to the safety claimed by the doctor in prescribing one product compared to another: today Aifa draws up, updates and modifies lists that already tell which products! are interchangeable with each other.

In short, there is no reason to dispute the

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Fedaiisf Federazione delle Associazioni Italiane degli Informatori Scientifici del Farmaco e del Parafarmaco