How to contain costs

The orientation of all the industrialised nations is to stimulate the production of cheaper medicines that preserve the same quality, efficacy and tolerability of the traditional products. It was therefore decided to permit - once the patents that cover most of the products in use for a certain period lapse - the production of equivalent medicines that have exactly the same characteristics as the original products. This has resulted in a considerable number of industrial initiatives designed to make cheaper products available to the public. These are produced working to the high standards imposed by the health authorities and thoroughly tested, in an attempt to offer the State a valid solution that enables it to continue to provide pharmaceutical assistance to its citizens according to appropriate standards.