Italy's hospital drug spend overshoots

Pharmaceutical expenditure in Italian hospitals is continuing to rise while overall reimbursable drug spending in the national health service  dipped last year by 1%. The hospital sector's spending has been  consistently well above budgeted levels and at the last estimate for  2008 registered an overshoot of 1.3 billion euros ($1.69 billion).  Italy's drug agency, the Aifa, calculates savings on medicines in the  period to November 2008 at 182.5 million euros , although in terms of  spending within budget limits some regions of the country, mainly in the  south and Lazio, registered above-budget levels.

In the case of the hospitals in the first 11 months of last year, drug  spending reached 3.4 billion euros compared with a budget limit of 2.16  billion euros. This figure does not include vaccines or so-called class  A items. December expenditure on medicines by the hospitals grew 3.8%  against a legally-binding target level of 2.4%.