OTCs could save Italy billions on drug costs

Pharmaceutical spending in Italy is running at around 10,000 billionlire ($4.6 billion) a year, with 67% of this total being for prescription medicines. However, if the country's consumers were to choose an over-the-counter medicine in at least 50% of cases, the government would save 1,400 billion lire, according to a study conducted by Anifa, the Italian non-prescription drugmakers association. The results were presented at a conference, Self-prescription in a changing health care system, held earlier this month in Rome, by Carlo Lucioni of the Institute of Health Care Economics.

Trentino Alto Adige, Emilia Romagna and Lombardia are three Italian regions which already choose to spend more on OTC medicines, and therefore are helping the government cut drug reimbursement costs by as much as 25%, Prof Lucioni pointed out. If all the country's regions adopted the same attitude, enormous public health savings would be achieved, he added.

This would be easily achievable in Italy, he said, since there are OTC medicines available that are just as good as prescription drugs in many therapeutic categories, such as analgesics, anti-inflammatories and antihistamines, and non-prescription drugs generally cost about half the price of prescription medicines. Moreover, savings would not only accrue at the government level; the 21 million or so families in Italy would save 15% a year on their medical expenses.