The theft of medicines from Italian hospitals

In recent years, the theft of medicines from Italian hospitals has emerged as a booming criminal phenomenon. This issue represents a serious threat to people’s health, the national budget, companies’ revenues and legal competition. However, studies concerning theft of medicines are lacking, as most research focuses only on the counterfeiting of medicines. In 2014 Transcrime published the first systematic and scientific attempt to analyse the theft of medicine from Italian hospitals. This essay summarises and provides updates on the results of that study.