Italy finds some expensive cancer drugs less effective than claimed, so will cut their prices, reports the FT

According to the UK's Financial Times, Italy plans to reduce the price of several expensive cancer drugs in 2011 after ground-breaking studies showed them to be less effective than their manufacturers have claimed.

Guido Rasi, head of the Italian drugs regulator Agenxia Italiano del Farmaco, told the FT's Andrew Jack that significant price cuts were likely next year on the first batch of drugs authorized for use in a new 'pay for performance' program initiated in 2007, launched by the Italian government to establish detailed information on the efficacy of a medicine once it had been widely used by patients, rather than in smaller-scale clinical trials.

Mr Jack points out that the price cuts are not directly linked to recent moves by European Union countries, including Italy, Spain and Germany (The Pharma Letters passim), to reduce prices as they struggle to meet high budget deficits in the short term, but will add to growing pressure on pharmaceutical companies following the economic downturn.