The Government gives the green light to the plan that will promote autonomy in the production of medicines and the use of generics

Thus, among the main axes of the strategy, in addition to promoting research, development and innovation in the sector, it seeks to ensure competitiveness and its contribution to strategic autonomy through a solid, resilient and eco-sustainable supply chain.

It contemplates measures that will be carried out through the relevant regulations that will be developed in the coming months, such as the royal decree that regulates the evaluation of health technologies or the modification of the Medicines Guarantees Law. Among them, according to Health, will be the creation of a system for the evaluation of the efficiency of health technologies and the financing and pricing of medicines, the improvement of the evaluation of health technologies and timely access to medicines, the promotion of the use of generic and biosimilar medicines, the increase in funding in clinical and preclinical research or the promotion of regulation and strategic autonomy.

The strategy has been developed by the ministries of Health, Finance, Industry and Tourism and Science, Innovation and Universities and by the main employers’ associations of the pharmaceutical industry: Farmaindustria, Aeseg, BioSim, Afaquim and Asebio. It outlines what the relations between the sector and the State will be like, recognizing the interrelationship between innovation, production and access to medicines. To this end, a governance scheme is implemented based on public-private collaboration that will have an Interministerial Monitoring Committee (which will supervise its implementation), a mixed administration-industry Committee to facilitate cooperation and dialogue between the public sector and the private sector and an Alliance for Strategy.

Access to innovative medicines

The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has highlighted the “unprecedented milestone” that the approval of this strategy represents, “the result of the joint effort of four ministries and the sector’s employers’ associations.” The Covid-19 pandemic, he continued, highlighted the need to “reduce dependence on foreign countries in the production of medicines.” But among the challenges, he says, is “increasing pressure to quickly access new innovative medicines, with the difficulties in access and the sustainability of the system that this entails.”

The purpose, García highlighted, is to “transform the current model, focused on the industry’s supply capacity, towards a system where the health needs of the population are the main driver of the entire medicine value chain.” The minister has also highlighted the “fundamental role” of public institutions “in guiding the priorities of the next decade, from chronic diseases, advanced therapies or precision medicine, placing the demands of patients above the supply of companies.” .