For pharmacies, no changes compared to the text anticipated yesterday. Adjustments for the Physician Prescriptions Rule. The pharmacist will always have to replace the specialty with the equivalent at a lower price unless "non-substitutability" is expressly indicated on the prescription.
24 JAN – The text of the decree on liberalization is for the attention of the Quirinale (5.40 pm). Barring unforeseen events, President Napolitano's signature is expected in the evening.
After publication in the Gazette, the parliamentary examination for the conversion into law will begin, which promises to be very complex due to the many open questions on the various fronts covered by the liberalisations.
For pharmacies, the measures already anticipated remain, while the rules on the prescription of drugs change. The pharmacist will always be required to replace the medicinal product with the equivalent at a lower price unless the doctor has expressly indicated in the prescription that it cannot be replaced, unless otherwise requested by the patient. It is also specified that the dispensing by pharmacists of medicines having the same characteristics as those prescribed and a higher retail price than the reimbursement price, is possible "only at the express request of the patient" and subject to payment by the same of the difference between the sale price and the reimbursement price.
Here is the new text of paragraph 9, to read everything article 11 click here:
"The doctor, in prescribing a drug, is required, on the basis of his specific professional competence, to inform the patient of the possible presence on the market of medicines having the same composition in active ingredients, as well as the same pharmaceutical form, route of administration, mode of release and unit dosage. The doctor adds the following words to each drug prescription: "replaceable with
