Forbidden to prescribe the cheapest drug, Aifa executives investigated for damage to the exchequer

ROME. Managers and pro tempore members of the scientific technical advisory commission of the AIFA, the Italian drug agency, are accused of causing damage to the Treasury of 200 million for having imposed limitations on the prescription of a cheaper drug to treat some eye diseases , forcing the National Health Service to incur higher costs. All in the interest of two pharmaceutical multinationals, Roche and Novartis. The Guardia di Finanza has notified the parties involved an invitation to deduct for the investigation of the Court of Accounts of Lazio.The investigations carried out by the financiers of the economic-financial police unit of Rome, coordinated by the regional prosecutor of the Court of Accounts Andrea Lupi and the deputy prosecutor Massimo Perin, allowed to ascertain that the drugs 'Avastin' and 'Lucentis' had the same equivalence therapeutic, as shown by a series of comparative studies. But despite this, the first was not included among the products reimbursable by the National Health Service until 2014 and a series of "unjustified limitations" were imposed on its use at least until 2017, causing an increase in spending for the State.
To the total of 200 million, the Gdf says, we have arrived by calculating the price difference between the drugs – between 600 and 730 euros per single dose – in relation to the number of treatments that have been carried out with Lucentis instead of Avastin . The AIFA executives and members of the Agency's technical scientific commission now have 60 days to provide their version to the Court of Auditors.On the sale of the two drugs, the Authority for the competition and the market has also ruled in the past: in 2014 the Authority in fact fined the two pharmaceutical manufacturers – Roche and Novartis – with a fine of over 180 million for having created a sort of 'cartel', deciding on a product differentiation that was actually artificial. "The two groups have unlawfully agreed to hinder the spread of the use of a very cheap drug, Avastin, in the treatment of the most common vision disorder among the elderly and other serious eye diseases, to the advantage of a much more expensive product, Lucentis, artificially differentiating the two products.

Medicine and Research

Avastin-Lucentis case, the State Council confirms the 184 million fine for Roche and Novartis

by MICHELE BOCCI

For the National Healthcare System the agreement resulted in an additional outlay estimated at over 45 million euros in 2012 alone, with possible higher future costs up to over 600 million euros a year "wrote the Authority in 2014 adding:" The company conduct finds its economic explanation in the relations between the Roche and Novartis groups: Roche, in fact, has an interest in increasing Lucentis sales because through its subsidiary Genentech – which developed both drugs – it obtains relevant royalties from them Novartis.

The latter, for its part, in addition to gaining from the increase in sales of Lucentis, holds a significant stake in Roche, greater than 30% ". The Antitrust sanction was recently confirmed by a sentence of the Council of State, which rejected the appeal of the two pharmaceutical companies also condemning them to pay the costs.

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