“Regional planning also becomes essential in order to manage the patient correctly once the innovative drug has been released from the dedicated Fund. If there is no upstream planning, and many times access to these drugs is not tied to the region of residence of the patient where the drug is administered, there is a risk of not satisfying the person’s health needs “. said Ugo Tramaresponsible for regional drug policies of Campania, speaking at the webinar-round table ‘Fund for innovative drugs and Fund for rare diseases’, promoted and organized by Helaglobe with the non-conditioning contribution of Csl Behring, Roche, Novartis, Daiichi-Sankyo , Pierre Fabre and Servier.
The event – moderated by Enrica Menditto of the Interdepartmental Center for Research in Pharmaceutical Economics and Pharmaceutical Utilization of the Federico II University of Naples – saw the participation of representatives of patient associations, scientific societies, Farmindustria, Aifa and the Ministry of Health. The webinar was also an opportunity to present Synthesisthe first appointment for sharing a Position Paper on the Innovative Medicines Fund and the Rare Diseases Fund which sees the involvement of the heads of regional drug policies of Campania, Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Lazio, Lombardy and Tuscany.
“The Position Paper – underlined Trama – reflects the three lines of intervention identified, first of all Fund programming to obtain greater punctuality in the disbursement of advances. Secondly the reporting of flows through control dashboardsand finally the synchrony between access to innovation and timing of regional purchasing centers for a planned and efficient action “.
The share of the fund for the innovative “is advanced to the Regions – highlighted Trama – However, it does not always cover the clinical needs during the exercise, with the evident risk of inadequacy of the Fund received. A coincidence between clinical needs and financial flow would be desirable, as well as greater punctuality in the disbursement of advances. A dashboard of AIFA registers is needed to support reporting on the use of funds for innovative drugs “.
Among the main issues that emerged from the debate: the need for make access to what is defined as an innovative drug, be it oncological or rare, faster and able to satisfy all those who need or can benefit from itthe need to make the Fund permanent and financially adequate to the need for care, as well as to find financial flow mechanisms that enable the Regions to operate in a context of certainty of coverage.
Furthermore, despite an altogether simple purchase procedure for innovative drugs – it has been repeatedly reiterated – there are still critical issues and slowdowns that derive from an organizational lack due to the imprecision of needs forecasts. Hence the desire for dialogue and participation between the regional and national realities, combined with the opportunities offered by the NRP, the terms of IT infrastructures, equipment, which must be grasped by starting a constant path of comparison which is precisely Synthesis, a desired project to make these intentions concrete. A univocal assessment made possible through a centralized approach, a network approach capable of putting regional good practices into a system, would allow greater speed and greater certainty of fully satisfying the demand for health, generating homogeneous access throughout the national territory.