In the last months of 2024, the growth of pharmaceutical expenditure for direct purchases of medicines by the Regions slows down, finally registering a 3.640 billion variance against the 3.278 of 2023, equal to 11% of the National Health Fund (Fsn) against 8.3% of the planned expenditure ceiling. A figure that is certainly better than the overrun of about 4.4 billion forecasted by observers outside AIFA projecting the first half-year data on an annual basis, and which represents a 1.5% growth compared to the 10.5% of the Fsn reached last year. Considering also the shift of several medicines from the Fund for Innovative Medicines to that for direct purchases, the expenditure trend is in line with that of previous years and with those recorded in all advanced countries.

Data are retrieved from the ‘Monitoring of national and regional pharmaceutical expenditure January-December 2024’ approved by the Agency’s Board of Directors on 29 April and published on the AIFA portal. The same document, while still taking into account the provisional nature of some regional data, also highlights a considerable spread in expenditure at the level of individual Regions, with a percentage compared to individual regional health funds (Fsr) varying from 9.18% in Lombardy to 13.12% in Campania. Below 10% of the Fsr are, in addition to Lombardy, Valle D’Aosta and Trento, while Sardinia, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna and Abruzzo exceed the threshold of 12%, in addition to Campania.

Overall, the expenditure for direct purchases, net of medical gases, amounts to 14 billion 631 million, to which 8 billion 353 million of approved care regime must be added, i.e. for products sold in pharmacies, which, although slightly higher than in 2023, still shows a surplus od 651 million compared to the planned expenditure ceiling, equal to 6.8% of the Fsn. Contributing to the 159 million increase in expenditure for approved care regime is the increase in consumption, with more than seven million prescriptions, or a 1.3% increase over 2023. Total pharmaceutical expenditure in 2024, including expenditure for medicinal gases, at national level stood at 23 billion 226.7 million, up from almost 22 billion euros in 2023. The deviation from the total resources of 15.30% (20,260.8 mln) is 2.9 billion.