Italian Drug Prices Impact On Jobs, Says Forza Italia MP

Italian drug prices have fallen by about 40% in real terms between 1992 and 1996 - a trend that has brought a "grave worsening" of the results for the Italian pharmaceutical industry, according to Roberto Tortoli, Member of Parliament for Forza Italia, speaking in a parliamentary question session this month.

Mr Tortoli charged that the July 1996 reforms introduced by the government had, moreover, meant a further average reduction in drug prices of 4.2%. He added that the measures envisaged a further reclassification of drugs and medicines in such a way as to entail a strongly-negative impact for drug producers.

The MP said it was not possible to believe that such measures would not also have a damaging effect on jobs and cited the cases of Menarini SpA, which has already announced some 200 job losses (mainly in Tuscany), Cyanamid (100 jobs in Catania) and Crinos (70 jobs at Como).