The export boom
Exports continue to represent the driving force of Italian production with a growth of 44% compared to 2021. All the more reason during these difficult years, with the pandemic and the dynamics of the crisis, above all the export data confirms us «like other European countries they are reorganizing themselves by placing health, with the related investments and purchases, in the strategic development dynamics to ride out the health crises. From a cyclical point of view we are in an era that has no precedents – says Cattani -. Those who have more vision on health will be able to benefit from it with respect to GDP and GDP growth, in terms of employment and economic and social well-being. Let’s just think about the fact that during the lockdown we lost 14 billion GDP a month, and now thanks to vaccines here we are. And let’s think about what is happening in China where the pandemic and Covid are being tackled by dint of lockdowns and consequent drops in GDP because the country does not have effective vaccines and is not buying approved vaccines“.
Italy is the pharmaceutical factory of Europe
Italy is the first drug producer in Europe with a production value of 34.5 billion euros in 2021. Farmindustria expects a trend that can confirm the growth trend in 2022, i.e. more than 10% more . We are therefore talking about a value of 37 billion euros. The growth is quite widespread in all areas with a greater presence of pharmaceuticals, with peaks above the average in many provinces, such as Ascoli Piceno, Parma, Latina, Siena, Monza, L’Aquila, Rieti, Ancona, Brindisi and Pisa. The regions where the greatest ferment is recorded are the Marches, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Abruzzo, Puglia, Tuscany.
The skills
Focusing on the value of the pharmaceutical sector, skills are certainly to be considered a central factor that «we want to highlight to the Government – explains Cattani -. Ours is a leading industry in both innovation and manufacturing. With 67 thousand people, of which 90% are university graduates and with a gender balance with women at 43% of the total. Orders and production will also drive the positive trend in employment which grew by 8.6% in 5 years (2016-2021). Also for this reason, the Government must pay attention to the sector, due to its strategic positioning. If it is true that it has a direct impact of 2 points of GDP, it is also true that the impact is much greater indirectly».
Regulatory difficulties undermine competitiveness and attractiveness
There are a number of difficulties with which we have to contend: these are regulatory difficulties that have an impact on the dynamics of the country but which can also condition the value of exports, the attractiveness of investments, innovation. For this reason, says Cattani, «development contracts must be strengthened to support the manufacturing of the most innovative drugs. In Italy, the average time before the drug is reimbursed by Aifa is 14 months. There are other countries where long times are recorded, but if we take Germany, for example, this time is 2 months. Our country’s times are too long. To this we must then add that the average price is the lowest in Europe and that we also have regional accesses which complicate the picture because there are 21 regions and this creates a slowdown between 4 and 16 months.
The payback, outdated mechanism
This brings us to the age-old issue of payback and a system of governance and financing of pharmaceutical expenditure which is inadequate compared to real needs. It is necessary to arrive at a structural transformation to put more resources on drugs and to overcome the payback which weighs in at one billion and 300 million. We have a 800 million surplus in agreed spending and the resources end up going to finance other spending items in the regions. Payback is an outdated mechanism