“We will evaluate the launch of a communication campaign on the use of equivalent drugs, identical in effectiveness to the original brand drugs but not yet used enough by citizens”. This was stated by the Undersecretary of Health Marcello Gemmato, underlining that the equivalents also represent enormous savings for both citizens and the NHS: “Citizens would save 1.1 billion euros which today they instead spend out of their own pockets for the purchase of brand drugs and the NHS would save around 6 billion a year”.
An opportunity to take stock of the equivalent medicines market is the conference at the Ministry of Health ‘Equivalent medicines: knowing to choose’, promoted by Cittadinanzattiva as part of the ‘Ioequivalgo’ campaign with the unconditional contribution of Egualia.
“Italy is behind the EU countries on the use of equivalent drugs and there is still strong resistance from citizens, yet – explains Gemmato – it must be reiterated that these drugs have the same active ingredient and the same effectiveness as their originators, therefore they do not there is reason not to use them. Not only that, by using them citizens would also have great savings in terms of out-of-pocket spending, i.e. at their expense: over 1.1 billion euros out of a total of around 40 billion in out-of-pocket spending. for all healthcare items, which is higher precisely in the lower income regions and in the South. The savings, in terms of resources released for the NHS, would instead be 6 billion per year”.
Gemmato also recalled that pharmacists have the legal obligation to offer citizens the equivalent medicine when possible. In this regard, the president of Federfarma, Marco Cossolo, announced a new circular to pharmacists to remind them of the obligation to propose equivalents but also to underline the importance of correct communication to citizens regarding the effectiveness and characteristics of these medicines . Finally, compared to some drugs for which ‘non-substitutability’ is foreseen, “a further study should be done on these – concluded Gemmato -“.
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