Rome center, morning. Within a radius of three hundred meters, three pharmacies: one (large, with the air of a multinational) administers vaccines and carries out antigenic products, another (medium, three showcases) swabs in the gazebo, the third (very active but with a strong family caliber and it shows in the relationship with customers) has remained traditional, and for now it has been kept out. But in each there is a queue outside.
In this glimpse of the end of 2021, on the crest of the fourth wave, Italian pharmacies are objectively the first visible line against the escalation of the Covid-19 Omicron version. Out of 19,500 exercises in the national territory, over 14 thousand carry out rapid swabs – the molecular sighs remained in the ASL and authorized laboratories – but their number is growing rapidly.
Federfarma: boom in tampons, not earnings
In the last 24 hours, over a million swabs have been carried out in Italy: after the 250 thousand molecules were removed, about two thirds were processed in pharmacies, therefore over 650 thousand, and the remainder in laboratories and hubs. A staggering boom in customers, mostly focused on testing and the many medicines linked to the infection, plus supplements. A large volume of work.
A mountain of earnings, then? «Absolutely not – replies Roberto Tobia, national secretary of Federfarma – I deny this idea of stratospheric money, with evidence in hand. We are alongside the institutions in this battle, and to carry out this mass of swabs, the pharmacies had to assemble gazebos and hire specialized personnel, which for each swab takes several minutes, and then the administrative staff who work the communications, the decisive phase of tracing. . All this has high costs, and the rest of the business is very small ».
How margins change
One tampon has a controlled price of 15 euros, the one for 12-18 year olds 8 euros and the other seven are reimbursed by the commissioner. So there are no margins, are you saying? “The largest pharmacies that work on important numbers can get better prices in their supplies, but it is not true for everyone”. In fact, according to what has been gathered around, large pharmacies – single or linked to a chain of a single property, as happens more often in large cities – make more than significant profits, but it is now clear from an economic point of view of scale. And not on the masks: the certified Ffp2, with a fluctuating price of 1-1.5 euros, can now be found everywhere, from supermarkets to tobacconists, and therefore the margins on that front are minimal.