(Finance) – In 2021 the Italian health market it is valued at 26.1 billion euros, of which 16.3 billion represented by drugs and 9.8 billion by extra drugs. The expenditure for the purchase of drugs alone, divided between those with prescription obligation (13.9 billion) and without (so-called SOP, 2.4 billion), places Italy in fifth position in Europe, behind Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain and ahead of Austria. In the period 2018-2021, all the expenditure items of the health market were in decline or at most stable, with the sole exception of non-pharmaceutical products (+ 8.6%). Inside them i notified (+ 9.5% on 2018), the parapharmacy (+ 24.6%) and the nutritional (+ 3.3%) sustained the overall expenditure which saw a contraction hygiene and beauty (-2.6%).
The health market rests on one network of points of sale composed in 2021 of 19,901 pharmaciesto which are added 4,046 parapharmacies and 462 corner of the GDO, authorized since 2006 for the sale of drugs without a prescription. All these channels have experienced a significant expansion of points of sale since 2010, more evident for corners (+ 68%) and parapharmacies (+ 61.1%) compared to pharmacies (+ 11.8%) which in any case maintain the large majority of the SOP (non-prescription) drug market, with a share of around 90%. Nevertheless, the pharmacy is the channel with the highest SOP unit prices (€ 9.9) due to the greater assortment (€ 9 for the parapharmacy, € 7.4 for the large-scale retail trade).
The numbers of pharmacies
The organization of the pharmacy network in Italy is very widespread. Since 2015 their number it increased by 9.3%, due to the growth of private companies (+ 10%) while the public ones moved to a lesser extent (+ 2.7%). The number of inhabitants per pharmacy in Italy it went from 3,340 inhabitants / pharmacy in 2015 to 2,977 in 2021 (-10.9%), below the EU average which is fixed at 3,245 inhabitants and the world average to 3,600. The revenue overall developed by Italian pharmacies, it amounted to 24.4 billion euros in 2021, down 4% from 2015. The combined effect of the decline in turnover and the increase in pharmacies has generated a significant decline in the average turnover per pharmacy, dropped from 1,399 million in 2015 to 1,228 million in 2021 (-12.2%).
Comparison with European countries
The average turnover per pharmacy, which today stands at 1.2 million euros in Italy, compares with 1.9 million in France and 3.3 million in Germany and Austria. Only Spain with one million euros on average has a smaller size. There dimension reduced number of Italian pharmacies is also reflected in the organic plant which stands at 4.5 employees per store, against 5.9 in France, 8.7 in Germany and 12.4 in Austria, values that compare with the 4.1 of Spain.
There square footage the Italian average, equal to about 74 square meters, compares with the 165 square meters of the major European countries. Italy is definitely at a disadvantage in terms of average expenditure per inhabitant in pharmacies: its 413.2 euros per year put it at the bottom of the ranking, led by Germany with 733 euros.
The role of joint stock companies
Law 124/2017 allowed joint-stock companies to enter the ownership of pharmacies, with the only limit of not exceeding 20% of the pharmacies operating in a region. Overall, the main pharmacy networks operating in Italy, real or in simple associations, represent 24% of the number of pharmacies in operation for a turnover of approximately 6.5 billion, or 26.8% of the national total. Those mainly in affiliation, where the ownership autonomy of the individual pharmacies is preserved, represent 20% by number and 21.1% by turnover, the proprietary ones, in which a holding company holds the majority of the capital of the pharmacies, respectively 4% and 5.7%.