Rome, 1 October - The Lazio Regional Administrative Court, accepting the appeal made by Federfarma, with sentence of the Tar n. 9602/2018, published last September 27, annulled the Aifa determination of November 3, 2008 which imposes on pharmacies a quota of 26.70% to cover the overrun of the territorial pharmaceutical expenditure. The owners' union had challenged the agency's provision, with the relative compensation procedures in the event of deviation from the planned ceiling of the 14% of territorial pharmaceutical expenditure (set in 2013 at 11.35%).
The shelf of the overrun, as is known, must be divided among pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers and pharmacists in proportion to the relative shares due on the prices of medicines. And it was precisely here that Federfarma's appeal was triggered, which contested how Aifa - in determining the share of the overrun charged to pharmacies - considered the theoretical margin pertaining to the latter as the sole and exclusive criterion (26.70%), without assessing the reality of the strong reduction in the margin itself produced by the discounts recognized in favor of the NHS.
A reason for complaint which, according to the judges of the Lazio Tar “it is clearly founded…. since, as correctly presented and demonstrated by Federfarma (represented by lawyers Massimo Luciani And Massimo Tegna, Editor's note) , AIFA provided with the disputed determination the overrun quota charged to the pharmacies having as reference only the theoretical margin pertaining to the latter (26.70%), set by Article 1, paragraph 796, of Law no. .296/2006, without taking into account that this margin had been greatly reduced due to both the sum of the compulsory discounts that pharmacists were obliged to apply in favor of the NHS, including the additional one provided for by the 2008 agreement, and the previous measures of paybacks”.
Hence the acceptance of the appeal, "with absorption of the unexamined grievances with which the illegitimacy of the burdened determination for the constitutional illegitimacy was proposed both of the legislation that identifies pharmacists among the subjects obliged to contribute to the leveling of the overrun of the territorial pharmaceutical expenditure and of that which includes in the territorial pharmaceutical expenditure also the amount related to the distribution on behalf, relating to the purchases of drugs by the hospitals whose delivery is carried out in some affiliated pharmacies".
Related news: AIFA. The Pay Back methodology
Fedefarma. Tar Lazio: no to the 26.70% pay-back shelf by pharmacies.
