Italy's Pharma Spending "Not Out Of Control"

*pItaly's pharmaceutical manufacturers' association, Farmindustria, says health spending is steady at 11,721 billion lire ($6.88 billion) this year, with a "small" 367 billion lire overshoot on the ceiling set for 1997. Of the total overshoot, 300 billion lire is the effect of the value added tax increases, while the remaining 67 billion lire is linked to the country's economic performance, according to Farmindustria.

In a statement to the press, Farmindustria denies that state pharmaceutical spending is "out of control." Data on regional spending point to only a 0.22% rise in drug sales at pharmacies, footed wholly or in part by the national health service, in the first three months of 1997, over a year earlier. This is lower than the 2.4% inflation rate for that period.

The Ministry of Health, meanwhile, has announced that it has not signed any provision to reclassify A drugs currently in the totally free category to patients. Rather, the Ministry intends to "solve within the week the problem, by adopting any possible solution in order to avoid a reclassification."