Farmaindustria promotes its project to increase clinical research in primary care in the autonomous communities of Spain.
After its presentation a few months ago in Andalusia, the guide to bring clinical trials to health centres has been disseminated in Castilla y León and at the National Congress of General and Family Medicine held in Galicia.
The Association is also already working with other regional authorities who have shown interest in promoting clinical research at this level of care.
Farmaindustria.es
Spain is a leader in clinical trials with medicines, with more than 4,000 studies underway – eight out of ten are promoted by the pharmaceutical industry – and some 170,000 patients participating in any of those active in our country. This situation allows patients early access to treatments under investigation, which in many cases is the only option to alleviate their disease or improve their quality of life. However, this situation is not reflected in primary care (PC). In recent years, only 8% of studies in Spain have involved at least one PC centre, and the trend is downward.
In an attempt to reverse this situation, Farmaindustria launched a project a few months ago to promote clinical research at this level of care from a public-private collaboration approach. From this desire was born the Guide of recommendations of good practices for the promotion of clinical research in Primary Care (ICAP Guide), which was presented at a conference held in Malaga last November. The document – which gathers the opinion of more than 50 professionals representing all the autonomous communities, PC scientific societies, entities and patient organisations and the pharmaceutical industry – reflects the strengths, weaknesses, barriers and opportunities identified to promote clinical research in primary care and at the same time includes a series of strategic recommendations to help the different public and private agents in the field.
Since its presentation, the recommendations of the Guide have been presented by Farmaindustria in different autonomous communities in Spain. One of the challenges of this project is to be able to extend this research to more autonomous communities, as currently only a few regions concentrate most of the clinical trials in PC. The work plan for the implementation of the Guide this year includes working with the Autonomous Regions. One example is the autonomous community of Castilla y León, where Farmaindustria has been working with the regional authorities to promote this project in their health centres. To publicise the project, the Association recently participated in the Encuentro de Investigación e Innovación en Salud ‘Construyendo sinergias’, held at the Hospital Universitario Río Ortega in Valladolid and attended by more than 250 professionals from the biomedical research field. The event was opened by the Regional Minister of Health of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alejandro Vázquez Ramos, together with the Hospital Manager, Belén Cantón. This conference is part of the Colabora Programme of the Strategic Plan for Research and Innovation in Health of Castilla y León 2023-2027, in which the Association has collaborated since its design and launch.
At this forum, the director of Farmaindustria’s Clinical and Translational Research Department, Amelia Martín Uranga, explained the main lines of the project and highlighted how promoting the participation of research in this field is not only a necessity, but an opportunity for the National Health System (NHS). “This impulse is especially relevant at the present time, when the NHS is facing challenges such as the recruitment, motivation and retention of professionals in PC. In particular, the increase in cooperative trials between care levels is an opportunity to continue to strengthen Spain’s role as a preferential enclave for conducting clinical research with drugs at the international level,” he said.
The Farmaindustria spokeswoman pointed out the importance of taking advantage of the network of primary care health centres (more than 3,000 in Spain), “which provides enormous potential for leading clinical studies and represents an opportunity to bring clinical trials closer to patients’ homes”, she stressed.
At the SEMG National Congress
The priority lines of the project were also presented in Galicia. In this case, the director of Farmaindustria’s Medical-Scientific Affairs Department, Arantxa Sancho, explained the benefits of this type of research for patients during her participation in the 30th National Congress of the Spanish Society of General and Family Medicine (SEMG), held recently in La Coruña. “Clinical research in primary care brings the trial closer to the patient, facilitates equity and improves the quality of these studies, especially in diseases treated at this level of care and at earlier stages,” said Sancho. To make this type of research possible in health centres,” he insisted, “we need to train professionals in this area, provide the centres with resources that allow for research and achieve good coordination with the regional health authorities.
Farmaindustria is also already working with other regional authorities that have shown interest in promoting clinical research at this level of care, which is undoubtedly an opportunity and a necessity for patients and healthcare professionals.
