Paediatricians join project to boost clinical research in primary care
The working group led by Farmaindustria holds a new meeting, with the participation of two new pharmaceutical companies.
Farmaindustria.es
The drive for clinical research in Primary Care (PC) continues to advance in Spain. A new meeting of the mixed working group was held on Monday, comprising representatives of the Spanish Society of Primary Care Doctors (Semergen), the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc) and the Spanish Society of General and Family Doctors (SEMG); members of patient organisations; researchers from autonomous communities; and the pharmaceutical industry.
This group, which has developed the Guide of good practice recommendations for the promotion of clinical research in Primary Care and which was presented at the end of November in Malaga, has met to analyse and discuss what the work plan for 2024 should be and to continue along the path opened up by this pioneering document.
And it has done so with the incorporation of paediatricians, a fundamental part of the Primary Care service, through representatives of the Spanish Association of Paediatrics (AEP), the Spanish Network of Paediatric Clinical Trials (Reclip) and the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, one of the leading centres in this area.
In addition, the nine pharmaceutical companies already participating (AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, GSK, Italfármaco, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, Sanofi and Servier) have been joined by two more: Novo Nordisk and Organon, proof of the sector’s commitment to promoting the decentralisation of clinical trials and networking.
The meeting, coordinated by the Director of Clinical and Translational Research and the Director of the Department of Relations with the Autonomous Communities of Farmaindustria, Amelia Martín Uranga and José Ramón Luis-Yagüe, respectively, focused on analysing the priorities within the framework of the eight recommendations for action set out in the document.
Spain occupies a leading position 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 investigational treatments, 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 the field of Primary Care. In recent years, only 7.5% of studies in Spain have involved at least one PC centre. And there has been a fall in the participation of health centres in these studies (2%) and a high concentration of participants at regional level in just a few autonomous communities. Therefore, promoting research participation in this field is not only a necessity, but also an opportunity for the National Health System (NHS).
