Cutting back on medication puts your health at risk. An appeal

In today’s pharmaceutical industry, there is one factor that is just as important as the quality of research and investment capacity: time. The time needed to turn a scientific discovery into a treatment, to authorise it, evaluate it, make it available and ensure it actually reaches patients. It is in this arena that a decisive part of the international competition is being played out. And for Italy, the issue is very real: we can either take a leading role in the global race for innovation or progressively risk finding ourselves on the sidelines of the decision-making processes regarding where to invest, conduct research, manufacture and launch new treatments. This is not a theoretical scenario. In the United States, the Most Favoured Nation policy is introducing a new element into the global balance of the pharmaceutical sector. If the price charged in other countries with comparable economies can become a benchmark for the US price, the conditions established in Europe take on a completely different weight in companies’ global decision-making. This therefore alters assessments of where and when to launch a new medicine. But it also affects decisions on where to invest, conduct clinical trials, manufacture and develop new technologies.

We have already reported a significant reduction in planned new launches in Europe following the MFN announcement. Naturally, there is no single explanation for such complex industrial decisions. But the signal must be interpreted for what it is: the global geography of pharmaceutical innovation is changing, and Europe must react swiftly. Because a drug that arrives later is not merely a problem for the industry. Above all, it means a therapeutic opportunity reaching patients later. And when clinical research or investment moves elsewhere, knowledge, skills, technologies and the capacity for innovation move with the capital. This is why health policy and industrial policy can no longer proceed separately. Italy possesses assets that few European nations can boast: significant production capacity, Italian and international companies deeply integrated into global supply chains, scientific expertise, research and a highly skilled workforce. An industrial base that generates exports and added value and contributes to the nation’s health security. But precisely because we are strong, we must raise our ambitions. It is not enough simply to preserve what we have built. The aim must be to position Italy in the global race for innovation, competing with the United States, China and other major economies for the research, clinical trials, new technological platforms and investments that will shape medicine over the next ten years. To achieve this, we must recognise that pharmaceutical investment knows no borders. A new plant, a production line, a research centre or a clinical trial is established wherever the conditions are best. Scientific quality and expertise matter, but increasingly so do the speed of decision-making, the predictability of regulations and the ability to recognise the value of innovation.

This is where Italy can make a significant leap forward. The first area is access. We must reduce the gap between European authorisation and the actual availability of new treatments, by addressing national approval times and subsequent regional procedures. And we must establish a genuine early-access scheme for innovations with high therapeutic value, one that is sustainable for both the National Health Service and businesses. The second area concerns economic regulations. We cannot ask companies to plan multi-year investments whilst maintaining a mechanism such as the payback period, which generates costs that are difficult to predict and penalises precisely those who invest and grow. In the new context shaped by the MFN, this contradiction becomes even more evident. The third area is the forthcoming Budget Bill. It is there that we can transform a stated priority into measurable decisions: adequate resources for health and innovation, a structural move away from the payback system, recognition of investments in research and production, and tools capable of accelerating patients’ access to new therapies. In recent years, the government has recognised the strategic value of the pharmaceutical sector. We now have the opportunity to consolidate this commitment by building a stable framework that brings together health, industry, research and growth.