The pharmaceutical industry almost triples its investment in Spain
eleconomista.es
Twenty years ago, few could have predicted the trajectory that drug research and development would follow in Spain. While the country grappled with the real estate bubble, the financial crisis, and ongoing political turmoil, investment by the pharmaceutical industry in this area nearly tripled, making the sector one of the most dynamic drivers of the economy.
Over the last two decades, the pharmaceutical industry in Spain has shown sustained growth in its investment in research and development (R&D). In 2006, spending was around €706 million, while in 2010 it exceeded €800 million. Over the following decade, this figure continued to rise, reaching around €1.2 billion in 2019 and €1.75 billion in 2025, according to data from the employers’ association Farmaindustria. If we add up all the investment in R&D between 2006 and last year, Spain has raised more than €25 billion.
Spain has become one of Europe’s research hubs, ahead of countries such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. In 2025, 962 clinical trials were conducted in the country, according to the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps). Two out of five studies were aimed at developing anti-tumor drugs. These were followed by therapies for diseases of the immune system, with 10.5%, and the nervous system, with 6.9%.
The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point, and Spain stepped on the accelerator to participate in vaccine and antiviral research. Before the arrival of the coronavirus, the volume of clinical trials stood at around 800 per year on average. In 2023, 2024, and 2025, more than 900 studies were conducted, reaching record numbers.
At the same time, various innovation hubs have been set up in Spain, particularly in Catalonia and Madrid. This is the case with the Sanofi research center, where the French company will invest $150 million by 2030 and create 300 jobs. AstraZeneca, Almirall, Novartis, and Net-Pharma also have their own facilities.
The network of factories in the country has also expanded over the last 20 years. In the mid-2000s, Spain had more than a hundred plants. In 2024, there were 174 operational facilities, located in 13 regions. Of these, 106 were dedicated to the production of drugs for human use, 22 to veterinary drugs, and 46 to active ingredients, according to Farmaindustria.
Medicines have proven to be a strategic commodity. In fact, since 2022, they have been Spain’s third most exported product, behind automobiles and fuels, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism. Currently, more than 80% of the drugs produced in Spain are sold outside the country’s borders.
In the mid-2010s, sales of drugs to other countries exceeded €11 billion for the first time. Over time, this growth consolidated, and in
2019 exports reached almost €13 billion, in 2021 they exceeded €17 billion—driven in part by the production of Covid-19 vaccines—and in 2022 (latest data available) they amounted to more than €25 billion.
In recent years, Spanish authorities have been working to attract more investment, research, and manufacturing to Spain. To this end, in 2024 they launched the Pharmaceutical Industry Strategy through 2028. Between 2023 and 2025, innovative laboratories promised an investment of €9 billion.
It should be noted that in the last two decades, Grifols and Rovi joined the Ibex 35 index, specifically in 2008 and 2021, respectively. In addition, Almirall began trading on the Continuous Market in 2007 and Oryzon Genomics in 2015.
On the other hand, the pharmaceutical industry has established itself as one of the sectors that has generated the most employment. The workforce has grown from around 60,000 workers at the beginning of the 2000s to over 110,000 in 2025, an increase of 80%, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
20 years of a common portfolio
2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the approval of Royal Decree 1030/2006. This is the regulation that officially defined the common portfolio of services of the National Health System. Its entry into force marked a turning point in the organization of healthcare in Spain, which currently has 387 public hospitals.
The decree established for the first time which services the public system had to guarantee throughout the country, following the transfer of powers to the autonomous communities in the early 2000s. Its approval was a key step in strengthening equality in access to healthcare, giving operational form to the constitutional right to healthcare.
At the same time, private healthcare has experienced sustained growth, driven by social and economic factors and the perception of more responsive care in a context of increasingly long waiting lists. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting collapse of public healthcare marked a turning point. Between 2019 and 2021, private health insurance enrollment increased by 9%, representing more than one million new policies, according to the Spanish Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Entities (Unespa).
Today, the private sector has 410 hospitals in Spain. Ten large groups account for most of the activity, along with centers linked to insurance companies such as Sanitas and Asisa, and independent clinics. Quirónsalud is the largest operator, with 150 centers. In 2016, Germany’s Fresenius bought the company for €5.76 billion from CVC Capital Partners. It was one of the largest healthcare transactions in Europe.
