Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Industry To Be Impacted By EUR25bn (US$32bn) Austerity Package

Silvio Berlusconi's government has won a confidence vote in the Senate over its EUR25bn (US$32bn) austerity package aimed at lowering the country's budget deficit from 5.3% of GDP in 2009 to 2.7% by 2012. The package incorporated a series of relatively minor changes introduced by parliament since the bill was originally presented at the end of May 2010 and will be passed to the floor of the Chamber of Deputies for a second discussion on July 26. It must be finally approved by July 29 before parliament's summer recess. Following the Senate's vote, the cost-containment measures cannot be amended further.

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