AFI is the Pharmaceutical Association of Industry. Every year it organizes a Symposium that is held in Italy at the Rimini convention centre. It is a great opportunity to find out the latest about pharmacovigilance and to listen conference by the major Italian experts. This year took place on 6-7-8 June 2018, reaching its 58th edition.

“Transformations in progress in the pharmaceutical sector in the digital age” is the title of the 58th AFI Symposium in which took part speakers from the Pharmaceutical Industry, from Italian National Institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the Drug Agency and the Istituto Superiore Sanità, from University and Research Institutions and from trade Associations, that is Farmindustria, Federchimica and Assogenerici.

The main innovations involved:

  • the application of digital technologies in every area of the pharmaceutical industry, starting from research to distribution, both for medicines and for medical devices
  • the development increasingly focused on high value-added products, such as biological medicines and orphan drugs, on cutting-edge medical devices and on the increase of new technologies for the production of drugs and devices
  • the monitoring of the clinical effect of medicines not only in the experimental phase but also after being placed on the market, in order to improve the quality of life of patients.

This last point too was discussed in one of the 13 sessions present, dedicated to pharmacovigilance: “The new horizons of pharmacovigilance in Italy and Europe”, which was held on the last afternoon from 14 to 16. The moderators were Mrs. Marra (AIFA), Biffignandi (AFI-VerelPharma) and Mr. Magni (AFI-Assogenerici) who dealt with issues such as pharmacovigilance inspections, new European legislation, signal analysis, Patient Support Programs and vaccinovigilance.

Max Application team has been present again this year with our SafetyDrugs database, completely renewed in the graphics, to catch the news of the sector and to compare ourselves with experts and pharmacovigilance operators.