Is Novartis playing crafty with the state?
Aifa embarrasses some Big Phamas such as Novartis and Pfizer: in debt of 604 million euros. Here are names, numbers and controversies
Big Pharmas are bad payers. To say it is Aifa, the Italian Medicines Agency, which on its website has published the list of pharmaceutical companies in debt to the State.
The state coffers lack 604 million euros
Aifa complains that large companies in the pharmaceutical sector have not paid their share of pharmaceutical payback , that is the "payments made for the level of pharmaceutical expenditure for direct purchases" for the year 2019. By last June, the State had to be paid 1 billion and 361 million euros , but 44% of the total is still missing, about 604 million euros . It is the first time that Aifa publishes payment data from individual companies online. The numbers reveal who has not yet honored the agreements but also allow you to get an idea of the economic turnover of the individual companies.
What is the pharmaceutical pay back
The payback is a measure introduced in 2007 to stem the increase in pharmaceutical public spending. The procedure envisages that pharmaceutical companies collaborate to cover the surplus of pharmaceutical expenditure , an item of expenditure that each year absorbs about 15% of the national health fund. A part of the national pharmaceutical expenditure budget is intended to cover products distributed in pharmacies, another to those distributed in hospitals. The latter very often exceeds the imposed ceilings. The law therefore provides that this overrun is not all on the shoulders of the Regions but half of it must be the pharmaceutical companies , in proportion to their market shares (as required by the Budget Law of 2019), to take on these surpluses. . From a provisional measure to compensate, in exceptional cases, the underfunding of pharmaceutical expenditure, the payback has become to all effects and in the ordinary way a way of financing the same.
Novartis, Janssen and Pfizer: multimillion-dollar defaulters
The document is updated as of September 15, 2021 and reveals that several large companies are not only overdue with the payback balance due (which had to be paid by June 30, 2021) but have not even begun to pay their amount . At the top of the list of defaulters is Novartis which so far has not paid even one euro and owes 139 million. Immediately after is Janssen, in debt of 74 million euros. Bristolmyers Squibb still owes 100% of 2019 payback, or 57 million.
Virtuous companies: Roche, Lilly and Astrazeneca
Virtuous, on the other hand, is Roche which paid all the 110 million it owed to the state coffers together, among others to Lilly (36 million), Astrazeneca (35 million), Glaxo (5 million) and Menarini (11 million). Pfizer, which grossed 397 million euros, paid only 66% of what it owed, about 47 million out of 70, Merck paid only 14% of the approximately 19 million it owes, Sanofi Aventis 50%, about 6 million on 12,
Aifa awaits further payments
AIFA, as specified in its note, “ reserves the right to provide further updates following the receipt of further payment certificates”.
Scaccabarozzi: "Litigation open to the Tar"
The big names in pharmaceuticals are not going to pass us off as bad payers. The president of Farmindustria, Massimo Scaccabarozzi , president and CEO of Janssen, explained: “I believe that the non-payment of all the payback is due to the fact that there are appeals on the methodologies for calculating the shares – said the manager-. The Tar will speak on 23 October. At that point the judges will set what is really due ". The appeals on the counts are not new but previously companies paid what they thought was right, then waited for the decisions of the judiciary. As reported by Repubblica according to Scaccabarozzi, it was the administrative court itself that suggested waiting to pay the amount due. “The companies will have set aside the money, we will wait for the Tar and then we'll see”, concludes the president of Farmindustria .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/novartis-fa-la-furbetta-con-lo-stato/ on Wed, 22 Sep 2021 13:27:33 +0000.