"The agreement on the Health Pact has been reached, but there is no agreement on pharmaceuticals". One of the most controversial points in the confrontation between the Regions and the Government in the health game "is therefore postponed to a table ad hoc, because our proposal for a six-month extension of the discount on pharmaceuticals", a chapter worth 800 million euro, "it has already been rejected by the Executive".
Explaining it, leaving the headquarters of the Conference of the Regions, is Romano Colozzi, Councilor for the Budget of the Lombardy Region and coordinator of all the Councilors for Finance of the assembly in via Parigi. According to Colozzi, "the agreement on pharmaceuticals will be reached by the table within three months at the latest – he estimates – because it is in the interest of the State and the Regions to do so as soon as possible".
On the other hand, the coordinator of the health councilors Enrico Rossi is pessimistic. "I'm worried - he explains - about the possibility that the table will reach a rapid agreement, while progress has been made for everything else. If the rules on extra discounts are not reintroduced - he adds - there is the risk of giving away one million euros to finance a revenue from the pharmaceutical industry which is not the one that invests in innovation, paying moreover for generic drugs 30% more than the rest of Europe. I would not like – he adds – that particular interests prevailed over the general ones".
"The Government - adds Tommaso Fiore, councilor for health of the Puglia Region - is against the restoration of extra-discounts. This is 800 million which, in this way, would be subtracted from the Regions and paid into the pharmacy system" or rather "destined, with an ad hoc provision in January – he hypothesizes – in favor of the State, for cash reasons".
Ileana Sciarra – PharmaKronos December 4, 2009
