Rising electricity and gas prices, what is the impact of the energy price increases on pharmaceutical companies? Sergio Dompé, executive president of Dompé Farmaceutici, explains this to time.news Salute. An impact that goes beyond the bill. “Glass, aluminum, cellulose, in some cases some polymers, excipients. We have had difficulty in obtaining supplies, in some cases shortages, in others we have encountered an increase in prices. This becomes even more serious for drugs that are placed in Group Awhich can be prescribed by the State and which by law have fixed prices. So in a while companies will no longer be able to deliver them because some of them have already become uneconomical today to produce them. – says Dompé – The doubling of bills is a problem common to the whole business world, but what must be highlighted of this abnormal, and even partially unjustified, increase in energy costs are the side effects connected with the entire production chain. It is not something that will happen, it has already happened, it is happening “.
“Unfortunately, if it continues to happen the problems will become very real, because industries such as pharmaceuticals have a long time even in the increases in stocks, which are quite large but are not eternal. And at a certain point these shock absorbers, which are made up of strategic stocks that all businesses have, they are going to finish – he reflects – If I miss the glass because there are glass factories from which we supplied ourselves that are not in a position to be competitive, or if an excipient is missing, or simply the self-adhesive sticker or cardboard, and let’s not talk about raw materials and everything else, the problem risks becoming more and more serious “.
“The war in Ukraine, for example, has created major problems with mannitol, an excipient that is contained in many pharmaceutical formulations and that is a derivative of substances that are produced a lot in that country “. In short, continues Dompé,” there is already great evidence of this situation. “Just ask a pharmacy, he says, if the products he normally orders from the pharmaceutical industry have the usual regularity, if the orders deliver them in a few hours as has always happened or there are several products that are supplied in fits and starts. “I believe that the latter will be the answer. In our list alone we have about fifteen products that we struggle to produce for the main reasons I was talking about “, highlights the pharmaceutical entrepreneur.
On the high bills front, however, “gas for us is already 100% of its cost and we have an increase that is crazy – explains Dompé – On electricity it has not yet happened because we were lucky enough to be in guaranteed contracts. in the price, which, however, are over in 3 months. Fortunately, ours is not a highly energy-intensive type of company “.
As for the difficulties on supplies, “it is an issue that we have been examining for months with our network of analysts to ensure that we always have alternative sources, but these are valid if the problem does not become huge. Because if the problem spreads, too. alternative sources of supply can be in crisis. And therefore there can also be serious problems with regard to supplies in the medium term “.
“It is a very big concern that our country must have at the moment” regarding the energy crisis. And it has to do with the “risk of losing highly competitive companies”, crushed by price rises. “It is not just our problem, of course. We also see Germany and other countries in difficulty. Italy has made efforts both for the resilience of businesses and on the energy front. But let’s pay for the fact that we are not a big producer of energy and the choice of abandoning nuclear power“is Sergio Dompé’s analysis.
“The problem of the abnormal energy cost has two characteristics – he explains to time.news Salute – one is that it affects the production world in a non-proportional way, because there are highly energy-intensive companies and companies that are less so, so there is an inequality in this”. The second element is that it is not only fragile companies that are at risk now, he points out. “When crises first came, generally of a purely economic type, companies that had already struggled the most suffered”. “Basically these crises also functioned in a certain sense as a filter towards the competitiveness of companies within their sectors. On the other hand, if a super competitive company that worked much better than a French or American company has at this moment some constraints related to it. the energy costs that send it out of the market is something that our country must be very careful about “.
Italy, he analyzes, “has made a fair effort for business resilience. This latest government” now outgoing, “has worked very well on average and has safeguarded the situation. a more unique than rare opportunity for the country to relaunch. Even on renewables we are among those who have recovered more than the situation of a few years ago. Despite this, the country has morphological, organizational, poverty-stricken characteristics. energy raw materials such as to make it decidedly very exposed. A little more than other European countries. Certainly more than France, which is the country we are looking at because it also has greater similarities in the system with Italy “, he reasons.
The urgency, he concludes, “is to look ahead. Unfortunately, we should not look at what is happening at the moment, but try to have a medium-term program that truly safeguards our country’s competitiveness. An instrument of the PNRR, adequately reformulated following the shock that the country has suffered from the effects of inflation and energy, can be a way. It is clear that we must try to reach the bubble as soon as possible. was done this summer both to increase strategic gas reserves and to create alternative sources, by Prime Minister Draghi and Minister of Ecological Transition Cingolani “.
It will be enough? “It may not be – warns Dompé, putting the knot of the duration of the energy crisis – because when you have relatively little fuel in the tank it becomes vital when there will be the next refueling station. If it is within 30 kilometers it is one thing, if it is in 300 may not be enough “.