Sánchez presents the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation for Vanguard Health, which entails "a historic budgetary commitment for Spain"

Carlos III Health Institute, Madrid

The event, presided over by the head of the Executive, which took place at the Carlos III Health Institute, was also attended by the Ministers of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto; of Health, Carolina Darias; of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, and of Finance and Public Administration, Mª Jesús Montero. In addition, representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, patient organisations and the healthcare sector attended.

Spanish COVID vaccine

At the beginning of his speech, the head of the Executive described as "extraordinary" news the authorisation issued this morning by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products for "the phase II clinical trial of the Spanish company Hipra's covid vaccine," which demonstrates that Spain can be at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic. This trial will be carried out "in 10 hospitals and with more than 1,000 volunteers," and will receive 15 million euros in funding from the Spanish government, "as we approved a fortnight ago."

"A historic opportunity"

In his speech on the presentation of the PERTE for Vanguard Health, the president stressed that "it is about taking advantage of the historic opportunity offered by the European Funds to support science, the National Health System and a fair economic recovery through public-private collaboration." For this reason, he stressed, this PERTE implies a historic budgetary commitment: "We need an entrepreneurial state that invests and collaborates, that talks with the private sector" so that the transformation of the health system "does not create access gaps and ensures its financial sustainability."

The head of the Executive highlighted the role of science, which "shows us, once again, that it is the greatest source of progress, well-being and security. It offers us new hope for diseases that years ago we thought were incurable, such as cancer or most of the so-called rare diseases.

Sánchez explained that, within the framework of the Government's "desire to transform" the strategic productive sectors, for the development of this PERTE "we have not only contemplated investments, but we are also tackling reforms that will allow us to accelerate the transformation of the sector," and in this sense he stressed that "we are going to reform the Law on Science, to improve and support a new scientific career and the transfer of knowledge." In the summer of 2020, Sánchez had already announced the Shock Plan for Science, "through which we began to deploy scientific-technical actions aimed at implementing Precision Medicine."

Now, under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, "this scientific and health deployment is continuing throughout the country," for which the Carlos III Health Institute has played a key role, "a bridge between science and health," and whose work and dedication in the fight against the pandemic has once again been highlighted by the president.

Objectives of the PERTE

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la BellacasaThis PERTE has as a priority and fundamental objective "to promote and strengthen the protection of collective and individual health through a digitally transformed high-performance health system," the president summarised.

To this end, the PERTE is developed through four other specific objectives listed by Pedro Sánchez:

1. Firstly, to position Spain as a leading country in the innovation and development of advanced therapies aimed at curing diseases such as diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and ALS, among others. It is about guaranteeing and making financially sustainable the provision by the National Health System of state-of-the-art health systems for all citizens, reinforcing "the jewel in the crown which is our universal health system and supporting the excellent research, innovation and clinical development capacities we have in our universities, research centres and hospital system."
2. To promote the equitable implementation of Personalised Precision Medicine, favouring the strengthening, development and creation of competitive companies based on the generation of knowledge applicable to this objective.
3. Thirdly, to develop a digital National Health System, with an integrated database that allows the collection, processing, analysis and exploitation of data from different sources to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and research. "With this integration of data, it will be possible to deploy a digital health record so that all citizens have all the relevant health information and access to the benefits of the national health system throughout the territory," he said.
4. And fourthly, to strengthen primary healthcare through digital transformation, with the application of advanced technology for all activities involving relations with citizens and the management of resources anywhere in the country and in all areas of care, in conditions of cybersecurity, "thus reinforcing social and territorial cohesion."

The four PERTE objectives listed above will be addressed through five cross-cutting strands:

• Strengthening and developing the capacities of the National Health System. It is necessary to maintain Spain's leading position in clinical research and to retain the investments of multinational pharmaceutical companies by promoting the figure of the research health professional.
• Developing and modernising Spain's innovation-oriented industrial capacity. "It is important to extend our industrial autonomy," the chief executive pointed out.
• Deploying instruments and structures to ensure collaboration and coordination between the scientific and business fabric in all areas of the value chain of innovative products.
• Strengthening territorial cohesion, in order to incorporate all the Autonomous Communities in a transformation process that is aimed at the entire health system. Health innovation and opportunities for technical and industrial development "must be extended to each and every one of the territories of the State."
• And finally, strengthening training and stimulating partnerships between companies, National Health Service centres and research centres.

"In short," summarised the president, "with this PERTE we are going to contribute to the development of Digital Health. Thanks to the deployment of digital transformation and precision medicine, we will be able to reduce the inter-territorial differences in healthy life years after the age of 65 by 30%, as well as the identified gender gap. In addition, we will transform the value chain of the health sector and make the industrial fabric more dynamic and agile. Public-private collaboration and synergy between large and small companies and start-ups will develop an ecosystem of knowledge and innovation that will make us less technologically dependent."

The President described as "great news" for Spain that the Council of Ministers will approve "in just a few weeks" this cutting-edge PERTE for Health, "conceived and designed to improve the quality of life of everyone. To continue to be at the forefront of health, well-being and hope," he concluded.

Non official translation