Dynamic Italian pharmaceutical R&D disadvantages drug companies

While Italian-owned drug companies are among the most dynamic industryin the country in terms of their readiness to invest in R&D, the government's drug pricing policy has penalized the sector for a long time and affected its profitability. Also, the overall political and institutional context in which dynamic investment is conducted means that this investment, in terms of profits and dividends, is to the disadvantage of the Italian pharmaceutical companies

Theses are among the themes to emerge from a detailed analysis of R&D investment in relation to profits in the sector of the national drug industry owned by Italians. The study was carried out by Deloitte & Touche for the drug industry association Farmindustria.

The proportion of government funding devoted to drug R&D is extremely limited in comparison with other industrial countries. Drug research is mainly funded (some 90.4%) by the Italian-owned companies with their own capital resources. The study focused on 13 companies producing prescription pharmaceuticals, which were selected on the basis of their sales and represented 60% of the total for the sector.