Press release No 694 - AIFA has published the 2021 National Report on Medicines Use in Italy, prepared by AIFA’s Medicines Utilisation Monitoring Centre (OsMed).

Now in its twenty-second edition, the Report provides an increasingly complete and critical description of the pharmaceutical assistance in Italy, in the inpatient and outpatient settings, both when costs are borne by the National Health Service (NHS) and when they are borne by the citizen through private purchases.

Director General Nicola Magrini highlighted the importance of the Report for the NHS: “The OsMed Report is an official tool for estimating and verifying a series of administrative tools, such as pay-backs, other repayments and product expenditure ceilings, informs the decisions of AIFA’s committees, allows to monitor the impact of regulatory measures and the trend of medicines expenditure and consumption in Italy, also compared with other European countries. It is also a reference for Regions and a primary source of information for those involved in health communication”.

Francesco Trotta, Head of HTA & Pharmaceutical Economics Department, explained that ‘in 2021 the total pharmaceutical expenditure equalled 32.2 billion EUR (+3.5% compared with 2020), of which 69.2% was reimbursed by the NHS, with private expenditure growing more than public expenditure. Expenditure for each person is 543.8 EUR (of which EUR 376.3 is borne by the NHS). Most consumption is absorbed at local level (87%), where mainly chronic diseases are treated, against a lower expenditure (41%). Conversely, pharmaceutical consumption is lower in hospital (13%), where acute or complex diseases are treated, but a higher expenditure is registered (59%)".

Roberto Da Cas (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) analysed the trend in consumption and expenditure for the main therapeutic categories: “Cancer is the first category of expenditure, doubling over 8 years from 2.1 to 4 billion EUR, followed by antihypertensives, immunosuppressants, antidiabetics and medicines against asthma and COPD, with a certain stability both in terms of expenditure and consumption compared to previous years. Over 17 million Italians use antibiotics, almost 12 million use antihypertensives. Medicines for ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux (11.8 million), diabetes (3.7 million) and antidepressants (4 million) follow in term of prevalence of use.

Other speakers were Elisabetta Poluzzi (University of Bologna), Raffaele Donini (Emilia Romagna Region), Antonio Gaudioso (Ministry of Health), Angela Adduce (State General Accounting Office), Marco di Marco (AGENAS) and Murray Aitken (IQVIA).

The discussion was moderated by Giuseppe Traversa and Agnese Cangini (AIFA).