The birth control pill it will be free for all women. It was decided by thedrug agency (Aifa), as reported by the Quotidiano Sanità publishing an interview with Giovanna Scroccaro, president of the Aifa price and reimbursement committee. The estimated cost of guaranteeing free medicine for all is 140 million euros a year. National Women’s Health Day is celebrated on April 22. The committee also decreed the free prophylaxis pre-exposure against the hiv virus, the so-called Prep.
Technical time was needed to “reach a complete evaluation” and the green light from the authority. “We wanted to complete them before the expiry” of the mandate and the arrival of the reform of the Agency, expected for the summer, explained Scroccaro. To make contraception free in Italy “were evaluated, within 3 categories of contraceptive drugs, identified and divided by
‘generation’, the cheapest products, which have been made free. It was in particular the Commission
technical-scientific to divide the large audience of contraceptives available to date by progestogen component, recommending that a certain number of products be made available free of charge for each different ‘generation’ of medicines, guaranteeing a certain overlapping”, says the expert.
“We – continues Scroccaro – then analyzed those that had the lowest prices. The cost estimate for the State is around 140 million euros per year, but it is an important decision, which will make it possible to expand the number of women who today, perhaps, they considered the cost of these
contraceptives as too high and for this reason they did not use them”.
The chairman of the Price and Reimbursement Committee of the Italian Medicines Agency points out that “there has always been little recourse to contraception in Italy and this may now change. However, it is difficult to say, since there has been no price negotiation for these products, that a 25 euro pill is better than those that cost 10 euros”.