405,000 Italians need help in obtaining medicines in 2015

(ANSA) - Rome, November 26 - In 2015 some 405,000 Italians have needed help in obtaining medicines they couldn't otherwise afford, Italy's Medicines Bank Foundation said Thursday.
    This is 6.4% up over last year, the foundation added. Foreign residents have accounted for 55% of requests so far this year, although the quota of Italians seeking help is on the rise. Northern Lombardy collected the biggest percentage of medicines at 18.9% followed by Emilia Romagna and Veneto at 11.1%. The greatest number of requests for medicines comes from people suffering from respiratory problems, followed by people suffering from cardiovascular and gastrointestinal problems. "These people are invisible to all of us but not to disease," said Luca Pani, director general of the Italian medicines agency AIFA. "In this sense disease is the last bastion of democracy.
    Often these people don't even know treatment exists and often they are patients with serious diseases," he added. "Unfortunately the 400,000 people we manage to reach represent just 10% of Italy's poor," said Medicines Bank Foundation president Paolo Gradnick.
    "A lot still has to be done." photo: Pani