The Promotion of Drug Innovation in Italy: Critical Aspects and Unsolved Problems

La Valorizzazione Dell'Innovazione Farmaceutica in Italia: Aspetti Critici e Problemi Aperti

Authors

  • Francesco S. Mennini Institute of Leadership and Management, Kingston University, London - UK
  • Lara Gitto CEIS EEHTA (Economic Evaluation & HTA), Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Roma - Italy
  • Roberto Scrivo Ministero della Salute, Roma - Italy
  • Filippo Drago Università di Catania, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Biotecnologiche, Catania - Italy
  • Marco Iezzi European Commission, DG ECFIN - A4 Economic situation, forecasts, business and consumer surveys, Bruxelles - Belgium
  • Lorenzo Terranova Federsanità ANCI, Roma - Italy
  • Matteo Ruggeri ALTEMS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma - Italy
  • Andrea Marcellusi CEIS EEHTA (Economic Evaluation & HTA), Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Roma - Italy
  • Simone Russo CEIS EEHTA (Economic Evaluation & HTA), Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Roma - Italy
  • Raffaella Viti CEIS EEHTA (Economic Evaluation & HTA), Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Roma - Italy
  • Americo Cicchetti ALTEMS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma - Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33393/grhta.2016.406

Keywords:

Biotechnologies, Drug innovation, Health needs, Pharmaceutical spending

Abstract

The pharmaceutical sector is characterized by the level of investments required in response to the growing challenges in terms of demand for health. In most European countries the pharmaceutical industry, through production, research, intermediate goods and wages, contributes to GDP for a value of about 1%. The impact of the pharmaceutical industry on the added value varies from 23 billion euro in Switzerland to 9.6 billion euro in Spain; for Italy, this value is about 14 billion euro, higher than the average of other European countries. However, despite these positive findings, Italy can hardly keep up with other European countries in investments in R&D in the pharmaceutical sector. An even larger amount of resources is required by the development of personalized therapies and new generation drugs, e.g. developed through biotechnology, which are more effective in responding to complex health needs. Clear rules, aimed at defining and fostering innovation, together with competitive pricing models, are required to attract investments in the pharmaceutical sector. There are other aspects to be considered for an overall assessment of the pharmaceutical sector: among these, there are drug prices, logistic costs, limitations to pharmaceutical spending, the latter introduced by the law no. 222/2007. The indiscriminate cuts in pharmaceutical spending are likely to destabilize the health system, since they pose a risk to the health of the population. Reforms over time should be designed to trigger the virtuous cycle innovation-development-patient protection.

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Published

2016-11-02

How to Cite

Mennini, F. S., Gitto, L., Scrivo, R., Drago, F., Iezzi, M., Terranova, L., Ruggeri, M., Marcellusi, A., Russo, S., Viti, R., & Cicchetti, A. (2016). The Promotion of Drug Innovation in Italy: Critical Aspects and Unsolved Problems: La Valorizzazione Dell’Innovazione Farmaceutica in Italia: Aspetti Critici e Problemi Aperti. Global and Regional Health Technology Assessment, 3(1), 42–47. https://doi.org/10.33393/grhta.2016.406

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