New Spanish Govt Looking To Tighten Pharma Spending

The Partido Popular government of Spain is looking to tighten the controls on pharmaceutical spending agreed by the former government and the drug industry association, Farmaindustria, last year (Marketletters passim).

Jose Manuel Romay Beccaria, the current Minister of Health and Rodrigo Rato, Minister for the Economy and Home Affairs, want to tighten controls and have expressed this to Farmaindustria in a number of recent meetings, reports the Spanish financial daily Cinco Dias. Enrique Castello, Undersecretary for Health, will be directing negotiations with drug companies in the coming weeks.

Currently, the ceiling for drug industry growth, agreed last year, is 7% over a three-year period. Farmaindustria is said not to have ruled out a renegotiation of the ceiling, although the association believes that the government should take a serious look at reducing pharmaceutical fraud, which is estimated to cost the industry between 50 billion pesetas ($390 million) and 100 billion pesetas a year.