The President meets with senior executives from the pharmaceutical industry and is committed to promoting Spain as a leader in this key sector

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has held a meeting with senior executives from the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and representatives of the sector's employers' associations. The meeting was also attended by the Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu; the Minister for Health, Mónica García; the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities, Juan Cruz Cigudosa; the Secretary of State for Industry, Rebeca Torró, and the Director of the Office of Economic Affairs and G20, Manuel de la Rocha.

Pedro Sánchez highlighted the importance of the pharmaceutical industry in Spain, representing approximately 1.5% of GDP and generating around 170,000 high value-added jobs. In fact, Spain is currently one of the world's leading countries - and the leader in Europe - in clinical research, with close to 1,000 clinical trials per year. All of this comes against a backdrop of a 16% increase in Government R&D spending this year, surpassing the record 22 billion euros for the first time.

In this regard, he highlighted the progress made in Spain, in close public-private partnership, to offer the best treatments to citizens, and said that the Government will continue to work for a first-class health ecosystem and a safe and competitive pharmaceutical sector, promoting innovation, investment and a universal health system.

Public policies in progress

He also highlighted the milestone represented by the publication of the first Strategy for the Pharmaceutical Industry 2024-2028 in December of last year, inspired by the European Pharmaceutical Strategy and one of the sector's most demanded requirements. The strategy was developed and agreed in close cooperation with industry and is based on three axes: access, innovation and autonomy. In addition to this, the Cutting-edge Health PERTE, which has been allocated 2 billion euros in European funds, with 60 actions, including the creation of the public-private company Terafront Pharmatec to promote cutting-edge medicine and accelerate the arrival on the market of advanced therapies developed in Spain, while at the same time furthering their universal deployment.

Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The president of the Government of Spain has conveyed the Executive's commitment to the sector and its interest in continuing to promote public-private partnership and maintaining an open dialogue to make progress in regulatory improvement, through initiatives such as the draft Medicines Bill, currently in the process of being drafted.

For its part, the sector has valued the publication of the Pharmaceutical Industry Strategy, as it places the sector as one of Spain's key assets and contributes to placing Spain at the forefront of biomedical research and production and access to new medicines.

Broad representation of the sector

The meeting was attended by Farmaindustria's director general, Juan Yermo; Farmaindustria's chairwoman, Fina Lladós Canela; the director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), Nathalie Moll, and the director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), David Reddy.

Also in attendance were the chairman and CEO of Almirall, Carlos Gallardo; the chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, Joaquín Duato; the CEO of Daiichi Sankyo, Sunao Manabe; the CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, Teresa Graham; the CEO of Merck Healthcare, Peter Guenter; the CEO of Leo Pharma, Christophe Bourdon; the CEO of Chiesi Farmaceutici, Giuseppe Accogli; the chairman and CEO of Rovi, Juan López-Belmonte; the CEO of Ferrer, Mario Rovirosa; the CEO of Laboratorios ERN, David Solanes; the European chairman and director of Biogen; Wolfram Schmidt; the executive vice-president and Regional director general of ELMAC Amgen, Gilles Marrache; the European vice-president of BMS, Emma Charles; the vice-president of International Affairs of Lilly, Amy Jackson, and the executive vice-president of Sanofi, Audrey Duval.

Non official translation