"Italy Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Report Q1 2013" Published

Fast Market Research recommends "Italy Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Report Q1 2013" from Business Monitor International, now available

by Bill Thompson

(WireNews+Co) - Boston, MA - 15 February 2013

BMI View: The sharp drop in public pharmaceutical expenditure in Italy in the first four months of 2012 serves as a warning for the continuation of a fall in spending on medicines during the remainder of the year. BMI notes that this does not bode well for drugmakers selling their products in Italy as the success of the implemented policies may encourage the enforcement of further cost-containment measures, which, together with the ongoing public hospital debt situation, seriously hampers the country's attractiveness as a location in which to sell drugs, despite its favourable demographic characteristics.

Headline Expenditure Projections

View Full Report Details and Table of Contents (http://www.fastmr.com/prod/529387_italy_pharmaceuticals_healthcare_report_q1_2013.aspx?afid=201) (http://www.fastmr.com/prod/529387_italy_pharmaceuticals_healthcare_report_q1_2013.aspx?afid=201)

- Pharmaceuticals: EUR24.90bn (US$34.63bn) in 2011 to EUR23.54bn (US$29.89bn) in 2012; -5.5% in local currency terms (-13.7% in US dollar terms).
- Healthcare: EUR152.17bn (US$211.63bn) in 2011 to EUR155. 52bn (US$197.51bn) in 2012; +2.2% growth in local currency terms (-6.7% in US dollar terms).
- Medical devices: EUR6.42bn (US$8.93bn) in 2011 to EUR6.61bn (US$8.40bn) in 2012; +3.0% growth in local currency terms (-5.9% in US dollar terms).

Risk/Reward Rating: In our Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Risk/Reward Ratings (RRRs) for Q113, Italy is ninth out of the 10 markets surveyed in Western Europe. Despite being a large market, Italy is characterised by low levels of annual growth, largely because of widespread price cuts. Additionally, the Italian economy is one of the most vulnerable economies in an already shaky eurozone. High levels of public debt, poor infrastructure and a lack of competitiveness indicate that the country will remain one of the region's laggards over the forecast period.

Key Trends And Developments

- The decline in spending by Italy's national healthcare service, Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN), continued in the first four months of 2012, with pharmaceutical expenditure falling to EUR3.24bn (US$4.19bn). The drop was an 11.5% decline in spending compared with 2011, despite a 0.2% increase in the number of prescriptions, according to Federfarma. Highlighting the effects of cost-containment measures, spending by the SSN fell by 9.5% in January and 9.9% in February and by double-digits in March (-13.1%) and April (-13.7%).

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