Berlusconi asks Italians to pop fewer pills

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Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will write to 16 million households across Italy asking them to cut down on medicines they do not need, for the sake of their own health and the government’s coffers.

According to a newspaper report, the government is also set to ban lavish promotional gifts that drugs companies give doctors, in a crackdown on medical spending in a country where drug sales are worth 18 billion euros ($23 billion) a year.

"We invite you to take only those medicines which are essential,” Berlusconi says in a letter that will be sent out next month with an 80-page booklet of advice on “the correct use of pharmaceuticals.”

The Health Ministry reckons the average bathroom cabinet contains 200 euros’ worth of unused drugs, according to Il Messaggero newspaper, which also reported the government would ban drugs firms giving doctors gifts worth more than 5 euros.

The Health Ministry said no one was immediately available to comment on the report.

Italy’s national health system gives large discounts on many prescription drugs, and some experts say this leads people to buy more than necessary, which, Berlusconi says, “increases health spending and damages all citizens and yourself.”

Per capita spending on drugs in Italy is around 310 euros a year, less than in France and Germany where the figure is 476 and 442 euros respectively, according to industry body Farmindustria.

Some doctors groups have said the awareness campaign might have the undesired effect of dissuading vulnerable people like the elderly from seeking medical help.

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