The Italian Medicines Agency teaches how to use drugs in the summer

Putting them all together in one container can create confusion and errors in dosing and storage. Use a thermal bag to carry the medicine in a suitcase (but still inside their original boxes), is the best way to ensure the best storage. Never forget to take the essential medicines for survival in your carry-on bag along with their proper medical prescription, which must often be checked at the airport. When traveling by car, take medication with you in the cabin: air conditioning ensures a better temperature than that of the boot. One last tip is to measure the pressure often during the holidays. The hot and stress of the trip can create unexpected pressure surges that it is always best to keep under control. Always ask your doctor or pharmacist advice before going on a trip

The Price of Medications
The results of a survey conducted by the consumer badociation Altroconsumption that the liberalization of drugs The market for Self-medication medications resulted in chaos in prices, with substantial increases and sharp fluctuations from one point of sale to the other and across different channels of distribution. For those who work in pharmacy, it is not uncommon to hear complaints about the price of a drug or the payment of a "ticket". Sign of the great attention of the consumer to control how much he spends or distrusts pharmacists? If this second hypothesis was prevalent, certainly more information on the pricing of drugs will help clarify the situation.
How do you understand if a product is a medicine or not?
All drugs, excluding homeopathic products, they contain a Marketing Authorization Number (AIC): if the wording "AIC" is not included n. "followed by the number badigned by the Ministry of Health, this product is not a medicine and its price follows only the logic of the market.

Who sets the price of drugs?
1. For medicines provided by NHS prescription ("red recipe"), the price is unique throughout the national territory and is contracted between the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) and the company that markets the drug, in accordance with the general criteria with The price is printed on the package by the manufacturer.
2. For medicines that can be purchased with a paid recipe ("white recipe"), the price is set by the company By law, the price can be reduced at any time (this rarely happens!) But it can only be increased every two years, in January of every odd year, and no more than changes in the index ISTAT of the cost of living.The price is printed on packaging by the manufacturer, but the packaging will not always enter the distribution cycle with the price updated on the occasion of changes. The prices indicated on the packages are then updated by applying an overprinted label.
3. For over-the-counter (OTC) and homeopathic medicines, the price is entirely free and established by the owner of the pharmacy, the drugstore or the health corner of the hypermarket. Since January 1, 2008, the manufacturer can not quote any price on the packaging.
4. For medicines prepared directly from the pharmacy (Master Galician), the price is calculated according to a tariff set by the State and detailed in the label affixed to the container.
5. For veterinary drugs, the price indicated by the manufacturer on the packaging represents the maximum price set by the company

Each exercise can make discounts
Because sometimes the client is asked to pay a fee, Although the drug is provided by the NHS
For each drug provided by the NHS, AIFA periodically sets the reimbursement price at the pharmacy, that is, say how much the state recognizes at the pharmacy for supplying the product to the badisted. . If this price is lower than the one printed on the packaging of this medicine, the patient (legitimately) is asked to differentiate between the price allowed and the reimbursed pharmacy. On the market today, there are many equivalent (or "generic") drugs whose cost is exactly the same as that which is reimbursed at the pharmacy. Therefore, for these drugs, no difference should be paid. The pharmacist is required to inform the client of the availability of these drugs without charge to be paid by the client and the client may choose to accept this replacement and pay nothing or accept and pay the difference .

Periodically, the reimbursement prices can be reduced. In this case, you may have to pay a difference never paid before. In addition, in some areas but not in others, a fixed ticket is required for each prescribed recipe or package, the amount of which varies, again, from region to region.
Why are some drugs given free to a patient and paid to another patient?
Many drugs are free only for certain particularly important indications in which the use of the drug proves beneficial. For other indications, mainly related to transient or minor problems, the same medicine must be paid. At the time of prescription, the doctor affixes on the recipe a "note", consisting of an identification number, which tells the pharmacist when the medicine should be dispensed as part of the NHS. If this indication is missing, the patient must pay for it completely
Why does the pharmacist sometimes ask for a different (usually higher) price than the price indicated on the package?
Sometimes, it can happen that, according to law, the price of the medicines changes. Current IT procedures allow you to update prices in databases overnight, but price changes can affect hundreds and hundreds of packages, making it impossible to immediately update all drugs in pharmacy or in the warehouses. distribution. In the case of the drugs referred to in points 1) and 2) on the following page, since the law imposes a uniform price throughout the national territory, the pharmacist can no longer sell them with the "old" price. and it may happen that the price indicated on the receipt does not match that indicated on the packaging
Why is the price of self-medication so variable?
The competition introduced by the 2006 "Bersani Decree" has profoundly shaken a still unshakable sector: competition means the creation of alternative sales channels, price differentiation and consumer choice.
Each distribution channel (pharmacy, parapharmacy or corner) has specific strengths and weaknesses.

the prices are, in principle, so explainable:
a) the large-scale retail trade (GDO) handles about 200-300 "references" in its corners, most of which are very manageable products, known consumers because they are advertised by the media, which ensures a rapid turnover of inventory and the elimination of the risk of selling unsold products and thus allows to apply lower average prices. On the other hand, pharmacies manage about 600-700 and therefore have higher management costs, which leads to higher prices on average, but with wider service to customers. The strategy followed by many pharmacies to counter competition through other channels is to have a "basket" of inexpensive products, often inferior to that of distribution chains, perhaps not the flagship brands but as effective and safe as the best known and advertised, to cover the client's main self-medication needs. The "added value" of the pharmacy therefore lies in the wider choice and availability of selected and economically advantageous products.
b) If large-scale retail can apply lower prices, the pharmacy has, in turn, the advantage of being a single distribution channel for prescription drugs. Consumers should also consider the indirect costs and the time required to visit large shopping centers compared to the convenience of the neighborhood pharmacy. [C.] For the GDO, the health corner is a complementary completion of its merchandise offering. Revenues: Being not a strategic activity, the main objective is to recover costs. For pharmacy, the self-medication sector accounts for about 10% of its revenues and contributes significantly to the coverage of fixed costs.

What are the obligations to inform the consumer?
The pharmacist, at the time of issuing a drug reimbursed by the NHS and charged with a quota, is required to inform the patient of the possible existence of an equivalent drug ( or "generic") without quota.
If the prescription is not applied by the doctor indicating the non-substitutability of the prescribed drug, the pharmacist, at the request of the client, is obliged to provide a product at a lower price than the prescribed drug
At the pharmacy and in other authorized stores the price of self-medication it must be made public by the display of a price list or equivalent systems and must be practiced uniformly to all Entela customers. As indicated by the Guarantor for price monitoring, each store (pharmacy, pharmacy, GDO corner) must display a sign indicating the price of the 20 most famous self-medication, of which 15 indicated by the Ministry and 5 each fiscal year. .
Conclusions
The methods of setting drug prices are complex and only for a portion of products, those of self-medication, the price is free and variable between a commercial drug and a drug. Other. Price competition for self-medication is a recent phenomenon, which probably still has the greatest benefits. However, every consumer now has the opportunity to choose where to buy the self-medication, badessing the choice not only in economic terms but also in terms of service. In the services offered, the size of the range, the proximity of the store, the ability to integrate purchases and trust in operators will also be evaluated