The pharmaceutical industry has doubled its investment in clinical research in Spain since 2005
Source: farmaindustria.es
In less than three decades Spain has experienced an unprecedented advance in biomedical research, to be placed in the group of countries with better conditions for the future to host international biomedical R & D projects. This has been highlighted this Tuesday in Madrid during the XII Annual Conference of the Biomedical Research Technology Platforms, which is being developed until tomorrow under the theme How to strengthen biomedical research hubs in Spain.
During the day, which brings together researchers, health authorities and representatives of pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology and health technology, among others, has presented a balance of the BEST Project, a strategic initiative to promote excellence in clinical research driven by the industry pharmaceutical company and in which 50 pharmaceutical companies, 13 autonomous communities, 54 hospitals and six independent research groups are integrated.
According to these data, the investment in clinical trials conducted in Spain by pharmaceutical companies has more than doubled between 2005 and 2017, from 299 million to 662, which means a sustained increase of 7% per year, and this despite the inevitable bump of the hard years of the crisis. “These 662 million constitute almost 60% of the total investment in R & D of the pharmaceutical industry in Spain, which amounted to 1,147 million in 2017, and highlight the growing attractiveness of our country as the destination of these funds,” he explained. Javier Urzay, co-president of the Spanish Technological Platform for Innovative Medicines and deputy director of Farmaindustria.
“This strong boost to biomedical R & D, which has intensified in recent years, and especially since the entry into force in 2016 of the new Royal Decree of Clinical Trials, has made it possible, for example, for Spain to stay between the six countries in Europe with the shortest time to start clinical trials in oncology, “he added.
In fact, according to the BEST Project data, the implementation periods for clinical trials, a determining factor to achieve investments in this area, have been reduced by an average of 14% in the last three years, up to 133 days, compared to 2015, the last year in which the previous regulations were in force.
Urzay, who presented at the press conference the balance of the BEST Project together with Ferrán Sanz, also co-president of the Platform for Innovative Medicines, and the heads of the other platforms of Nanomedicine, Health Technology and Biotechnology Markets, explained that within the framework of This project, and since 2004, the pharmaceutical industry has boosted in Spain a total of 3,303 clinical trials of new medicines.
These data are even more relevant in the same period in which Spain has been increasing the number of trials have been falling in the European Union as a whole, which shows the growing attractiveness of the country against others.
In Distefar we echo this news which is a joy for the whole sector, since it has more than doubled the investment in clinical trials carried out in Spain by pharmaceutical companies.
