Healthcare, Broya de Lucia: "SMEs are keeping the NHS afloat. Enough with regulations that penalize Italian businesses."

TURIN – "Small and medium-sized biomedical and medtech companies are not simply suppliers, but an essential component of the National Health Service. A network of skills, innovation, and employment that contributes every day to the functioning of hospitals and access to healthcare technologies." This was stated by Gennaro Broya de Lucia , national president of Conflavoro PMI Sanità , the main association representing over 4.000 small and medium-sized Italian medtech companies (with a sector employing approximately 134.000 workers), speaking at the 26th AIIC National Conference underway in Turin.

"Those who consider medtech SMEs to be mere suppliers," added de Lucia, "underestimate their true role. Without this network of companies, the NHS would be more fragile, less efficient, and more expensive. Strengthening the Italian supply chain means creating value, employment, and competitiveness without reducing competition or limiting access to care. Today, however, payback and the IPI regulation are producing the opposite effect." According to the president of Conflavoro PMI Sanità, in Italy the International Procurement Instrument (IPI) "has been exploited, effectively excluding Chinese companies from nearly 90% of the market." The result "is not an advantage for Europe, as intended by the spirit of the regulation, but a detriment for Italian SMEs in the healthcare distribution and technology sectors, benefiting only the large non-EU Atlantic operators capable of guaranteeing large-volume supplies. This does not strengthen European industry: it weakens the fabric of Italian SMEs and risks increasing costs for the National Health Service."

Regarding payback, Broya de Lucia reiterated the need for a "structural overhaul of the system," noting that "in the medical devices sector, the burden of the mechanism has also been transferred to distributors, unlike in the pharmaceutical sector." "SMEs aren't asking for privileges, but for fair rules. When companies that invest, hire, and provide essential healthcare services are targeted, not only a productive sector but the entire country's system is weakened. Protecting SMEs means protecting Italy, its competitiveness, and the future of the National Health Service," he concluded.