Italy has appointed Stefania Cuccagna as head of the Access to Medicines and HTA Area (Area accesso al farmaco e HTA) at the Italian Medicines Agency (Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco, AIFA), one of the agency’s main access-facing functions.
AIFA announced the outcome of the internal selection procedure on 6 May. Cuccagna is to replace Francesco Trotta, who had left after becoming director general of the local health authority in Nuoro, Sardinia. Cuccagna comes to the post from her previous role at AIFA as head of the planning and management-control office.
The appointment comes shortly after AIFA’s reorganisation placed health technology assessment more visibly within the agency’s access architecture. The Access to Medicines and HTA Area brings together five offices covering clinical evaluations, economic evaluations, monitoring registries, prices and reimbursement, and European HTA procedures. It also supports the Scientific and Economic Commission for Medicines (Commissione scientifica ed economica del farmaco, CSE), which now combines clinical and economic assessment within a single committee.
That structure gives the area a central role in the practical operation of the post-reform AIFA model. It sits across evidence review, pharmacoeconomic assessment, registry-linked access tools, price and reimbursement procedures, and Italy’s interaction with the EU health technology assessment framework. The European HTA procedures office is the internal route through which AIFA engages with joint clinical assessment and related EU HTA work.
The leadership change is therefore a useful signal of how AIFA intends to run its access function after reorganisation. The choice of a director from planning and management control points to a continuing emphasis on structured processes, performance management and administrative coordination, alongside the scientific and economic work carried out by the specialist offices and the CSE.
Source: AboutPharma and Italian Medicines Agency
Link: Aifa: Stefania Cuccagna alla guida dell’area accesso al farmaco e Hta (AIFA: Stefania Cuccagna to lead the access to medicines and HTA area).
Link: Esito dell’avviso per il conferimento di posti di funzione dirigenziale di livello non generale di direzione di struttura non corrispondente a struttura complessa – Area accesso al farmaco e HTA (Outcome of the notice for the conferral of a non-general management function for a structure not corresponding to a complex structure – Access to medicines and HTA area).
Date: 15 May 2026
