Share of net expenditures for generic drugs in Italy 2018-2023, by geographical area

The share of net expenditures for generics in Italy increased between 2018 and 2023. In 2023, as depicted by the figure, there was a gap of roughly 12 percentage points between the North and the South Italy. Overall, in 2023, generics accounted for 27.8 percent of the net expenditure in Italy. This statistic shows the share of net expenditures for generic pharmaceuticals in Italy from 2018 to 2023, by geographical area.

Market volume share of generic drugs

A generic drug is a pharmaceutical product which is marketed by referring to its chemical composition, which is the same as a previous patented drug, and without advertising the brand name. In terms of volume of sales, the growth of generics in Italy was steady. In fact, the market volume share of generics constantly increased between 2012 and 2021, when it peaked at 28.4 percent.

Generic drug use by region

In the north of Italy people were much more likely to take generic drugs than in southern regions. The autonomous province of Trento was the region with the greatest share of generic drug consumption. Consequently, the share of generics on public pharmaceutical expenditure was more remarkable in the North than in the rest of Italy.