Spain's drugmakers meet with Prime Minister to ask for sectorial support

Spanish pharmaceutical companies finally got their meeting with the nation’s Prime Minister to put their case against what they see as austerity measures which they see as disproportionally impacting the industry (The Pharma Letter June 3).

A meeting was held earlier this month at the Palacio de La Moncloa that was attended by PM Jose Luis Rodriguez, Minister of Health and Social Policy Trinidad Jimenez, Secretary General of Ministry of Health Jose Martínez Olmos and representatives from Farmaindustria, the innovative drug industry trade group, who explained to the Head of State that the latest cost containment measures, Real Decree-laws 4/2010 and 8/2010, have produced a tough blow debilitating possibilities of the industry becoming a productive role model sector in Spain.

In the same time, Farmaindustria’s representatives insisted that the pharmaceutical industry is a sector of activity that involves a series of very important benefits, not only for society, but also for the whole of the Spanish economy. For these reasons, they made clear the need to revert the actual situation by means of a Sectorial Plan, which would involve all the related departments (Health, Industry, Innovation, labor and economy), that would give support for the development of this sector and stability to the companies involved.