Spanish Drug Approval Procedure Criticized

The pharmaceutical industry cannot develop in Spain if the current mistakes and insufficiencies relating to the approval of medicines continue, according to Juan Manuel Reol Tejada of the Spanish pharmaceutical industry association, Farmaindustria.

He writes in the association's quarterly magazine Indufarma that if Spain does not bring about profound changes to the product approval system, its budget, staff and methods, its presence within the European drug industry will become marginal. If it cannot present products to the European Medicines Evaluation Agency from its own R&D or international research which may come to Spain if it has first-class technical expertise, Spain's role will be reduced to receiving products from other EU countries by the decentralized system, without simultaneously having products reaching other markets from Spain.

Health Spending Since 1982 Spanish health care spending rose 28% during 1982-92, higher than Italy with 23%, the UK with 20% and France with 17%. Other EU states such as the Netherlands and Germany increased their health care spending by under 2% during this period. However, Spain still has among the lowest spending on health care in terms of gross domestic product in Europe, at 7%. Examples of other countries' spending are as follows: