Not just 'do-it-yourself' swabs for the diagnosis of Covid-19. As is known, in Italian pharmacies you can often find entire shelves dedicated to home tests to research and diagnose, with a variable percentage of reliability, a wide variety of pathologies and conditions. Products which, as in the case of tests for the diagnosis of streptococci (+3,740% of pieces sold between January and November 2023, equal to 682,753 units), as well as those for menopause (+171% in one year), the level of iron (+138%), the search for occult blood in the stool (349%) or thyroid dysfunction (+291%), recorded a real boom in sales in the first post-pandemic year. This is highlighted by a survey on sell-out data conducted for 'Quotidiano Sanità' by Pharma Data Factory (PDF), which boasts the most punctual and extensive database on the market, with 95% of pharmacies monitored and a survey of consumption real estate of drugs and other products in Italy.
“Thanks to the experience of the pandemic, which has bequeathed to all of us a greater familiarity with these tools, the use that is also made in Italy of other tests, such as those for measuring alcohol levels (+4% units sold in a year) and drugs (+22%) in the blood, fertility/pregnancy (+22%), to detect blood sugar (+7%), Helicobacter pylori (+66%), vaginal/urological infections (+69%), vitamin D levels (+99%), HIV (+13%), intolerances/allergies (+48%), is therefore increasingly consistent. However, the use of blood tests is decreasing ovulation (-13% in a year), for gout (-23%), for dyslipidemia (-74%)”, reports 'Quotidiano Sanità'.
“Covid swabs are still the most numerous today in terms of choice on the shelves, with 762 different varieties that can be purchased in pharmacies, for a total of over 11.4 million pieces sold during 2023 (January-November, 5,704. 617 only in the September-October-November quarter), numbers which however are down 79% compared to the previous year and 43% over the quarter – we read – Figures which correspond to the slowing down of the emergency linked to the coronavirus and the rules today much less stringent than the pandemic peak of 2020-2021. But which still gives us a picture in which 'do-it-yourself' swabs are significantly higher than the official ones, registered by the Ministry of Health and equal to around 3 million in total between September and November 2023, compared to the 5.8 million home tests sold in pharmacies and carried out by Italians in their homes”.
A habit that pharmacists now notice in their daily practice, also partly justified by the lower cost of do-it-yourself swabs, around 12 euros and down by 25% compared to the same quarter of 2022, compared to around 15 for the official ones.
“And if the general turnover of the 'do it yourself testing' sector in Italy exceeded 83 million euros in 2023, the average prices increased by 17.4% over the entire year and by 26.8 % on the September-November 2023 quarter. The swab that has seen a real boom, that for the detection of streptococcus, has for example undergone a price increase of as much as +530% in the year and by 734% in the last quarter detected, as well as that of the thyroid test (+174% in the quarter), vitamin D (+155%), menopause (+265%), vaginal/urological infections (+319%)”, concludes the analysis.
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