Italy's antitrust authority has said doctors should prescribe generic drugs rather than more expensive brand names, a move it said would reduce a conflict of interests between doctors and pharmaceutical firms.
In an opinion issued over the weekend, the authority said it was concerned about pharmaceutical companies paying for doctors to attend conferences and funding their travel and hospitality, saying it posed a potential conflict of interests.
One way to address this would be to ensure doctors prescribe only the active ingredient of drugs or the lowest cost generic, to ensure that they were not favouring companies from which they had received such hospitality.
"This should be done in every case except where the doctor can specify medical reasons why the drug cannot be substituted," it said in a statement.
La Stampa daily quoted Health Minister Livia Turco as welcoming the suggestion and saying she would consider putting it into law.
The newspaper said Italy had a much smaller market penetration of generics than its European partners, just 1.7 percent of the market by value, compared with 11.7 in France and 19 percent in Germany.
Reuters
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