Spain above the European average in clinical trials in oncology

Having prestigious and highly qualified health professionals, a National Health System that is among the best in the world for its quality and infrastructures, a pharmaceutical industry committed to research and a framework legal system that facilitates these activities, especially since the approval of the new Royal Decree of Clinical Trials, have made Spain one of the European countries with better conditions for the investigation of new medicines against cancer, a disease in which World Day is celebrating the fight against on February 4.

Spanish trade group Farmaindustria says that 37% of the clinical trials carried out in Spain, including those promoted at the beginning of the pharmaceutical industry and those promoted by public entities, are carried out in the field of oncology, compared to the European average of 24%, quoting data from the European Registry of Clinical Trials (EudraPharm) for 2015. But in addition, the research and development of new anti-tumor drugs, whose trials are the most complex, form a very important part of the research efforts that lead to the innovation of the pharmaceutical industry.

Specifically, 50% of clinical trials carried out in Spain by the innovative pharmaceutical industry in 2015 (in the absence of knowing the definitive data of 2016) in collaboration with hospitals and research centres have been developed in the field of oncology, according to the latest data from Project BEST, a platform of excellence in clinical research for medicinal products in Spain, driven by the industry, which includes 45 laboratories, 58 hospitals and three independent research groups.