New drug pricing criteria in Italy: considerations and proposals to support value and innovation

Abstract

The definition of criteria and processes for the submission of price and reimbursement requests (P&R) of a drug in Italy cannot be separated from the definition of an overall “Pharmaceutical Policy” that includes, in an organic vision: (i) the governance related to the research, marketing and monitoring of drugs in the Italian market; (ii) the availability of drugs on the national territory as an element included in the essential levels of care (LEA) and the related conditions in terms of timing and equity of access between different regions, as well as towards other European countries; (iii) the assessment criteria used. The decree published in the Italian Official Journal in the summer of 2020, which defines the new criteria for the regulation of P&R of medicines in Italy, focuses on the final part of the process, i.e. the price negotiation. It would be necessary to frame this last step within a broader and more organic structure of drug policies aimed at: 1. optimising healthcare funding by encouraging competition between healthcare technologies; 2. reducing assessment time by simplifying processes; 3. improving early access to drugs for unmet need; 4. increasing the quality of P&R dossiers by improving interaction with the companies; 5. encouraging innovative agreements and complementary elements to the price; 6. encouraging the reproducibility of assessment methodologies in a value-based pricing system; 7. considering cost-benefit analyses as tools for the definition of price and conditions of reimbursability; 8. creating a place for discussion on drug policies.