A new body dedicated to reviewing prices of medical devices in Italy has been established by the January 23, 2023 decree of the Ministry of Health, which has been recently published (and you may find here). This new “Osservatorio nazionale dei prezzi dei dispositivi medici” will be aided by the Health Technology Assessment group and other entities within the national healthcare service.

The outcome of the Osservatorio’s analysis will be published in a dedicated section of the Ministry of Health website.

The med-tech industry association has welcomed a better focus on prices, but warned against confusion among the 1.5 million+ med-tech goods and related services offered in Italy, as well as pointed out that Italy does not suffer from a problem of overspending in medical devices (the prices of which are substantially lower than the EU average), but of underfunding of the national health service.