The Report on the use of drugs during the COVID-19 epidemic was presented today, created thanks to data processed by the Italian Medicines Agency's National Observatory on the Use of Medicines (OsMed).
In addition to the Director General of AIFA Nicola Magrini, who opened the proceedings, the President of the Scientific Technical Commission of the Patrizia Popoli Agency, the President of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità Silvio Brusaferro, the President of the Superior Council of Health Franco Locatelli spoke. , the President of the INMI Spallanzani Giuseppe Ippolito and the General Director of the Prevention Department of the Ministry of Health Gianni Rezza. Luca Richeldi, from the Catholic University of Rome and Francesco Trotta, head of the HTA and drug economics sector of AIFA, moderated.
“I thank the colleagues of the Technical Health Committee of the Civil Protection - began DG AIFA Magrini - for intervening, but above all for the fruitful and constant collaboration established in recent months to face the epidemic and the health emergency. We have worked hard and well, for the good of the country ”.
"The Report on the use of drugs during the COVID-19 epidemic - continued Magrini - is an OsMed product that I would call the AIFA 'flagship tool', active for 20 years now thanks to the collaboration with the ISS and other Italian institutions. The publication was prepared in record time, with the same timeliness with which AIFA has given a continuous and rigorous response to the emergency situation ".
The document analyzes the type and consumption of drugs used in the first months of 2020 to treat COVID-19 infection, but also those used in public health facilities to cope with the emergency, with differences highlighted between the pre COVID-19 period. , identified in the December 2019-February 2020 quarter, and the following one, from March to May 2020.
The Report is made up of three sections that investigate the different methods of drug delivery: the direct purchase channel, that is, the drugs directly purchased and dispensed at the structures of the National Health Service (NHS); purchases from public and private local pharmacies reimbursed by the NHS via prescription; private ones for citizens, mainly for class C drugs.
Among the drugs used to treat patients with COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin recorded the highest consumption in the period under consideration. While, among the medicines used in hospital, significant increases in consumption are found for injectors and oxygen, prevalently used in intensive care. The increased consumption of general anesthetics, injective and curative sedatives is evident starting from February 2020. The numerous interventions to calm distribution distortions and avoid hoarding phenomena have been fundamental for all these drugs, so as to guarantee their homogeneous and continuous availability on the whole national territory.
Furthermore, in the pre and post COVID-19 period, consumption remained stable for the categories of drugs used for chronic diseases, testifying to the successful outcome of the strategies put in place to promote continuity of care for chronically and frail patients, including extending the validity of treatment plans, dematerialisation of the prescription and institutional information.
“Especially during the emergency - underlined Magrini - we realized that only randomized studies must represent a solid research standard capable of guiding clinical practice, as shown by the case of hydroxychloroquine. It is also fundamental to rethink international scientific research, because only from a supranational vision it is possible to find coherent positions and substantial consensus on the most useful treatments ".
“There are pandemics - concluded Magrini - and they will be able to return in the coming decades: it will therefore be important to keep what happened in our memory and possibly evaluate the reaction capacity independently. The pain and mourning of these months will have been useless if we are willing to accept the usual recipes ".