Investment in medicines has stagnated over the past 20 years.

Investment in medicines is stagnating. Spanish public spending on medicines has remained stable over the past twenty years in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). This is clear from the report “The pharmaceutical industry and its context in Spain 2024” prepared by Farmaidustria.

In 2023 Spain allocated 3.4% of its total public expenditure to pharmacological treatment.. According to the document, this percentage has been declining over the past three decades, remaining stable in recent years.

Relative to GDP, public investment in medicines has remained virtually unchanged over the past twenty years. In terms of economic contribution, this sector drives the economy through employment, while more than 54,000 direct jobs and 210,000 indirect jobs

.

Among the macroeconomic data in the report, the following are highlighted: the impact of inflation on the pharmaceutical industry with additional costs in 2021 and 2022. worth more than 1.5 billion euros. This increase has had a major impact on the pharmaceutical industry as it operates in a regulated market with intervention pricing.

Spain has more than a hundred drug production plants worth 23.2 billion euros.

In terms of production, the Spanish pharmaceutical sector produces products worth more than 23.2 billion euros. In this sense, the country has 106 drug manufacturing plants for human use, of which more than eighty produce branded drugs, reinforcing open strategic autonomy.

The report also notes that pharmaceuticals is the second most productive sector in the entire manufacturing industry. It is also the second industrial sector that invests the most in research and development. almost every fifth euro of total national industrial investment.

Taking into account the foreign trade balance, Medicines became Spain’s fifth largest exported product in 2023.compared to the 17th place the segment occupied in 2000.

The document notes that in 2023, medicines included in the reference pricing system exceeded 86% and 67% in value terms. Although over the past five years The increase in inflation was six times higher than the increase in the average price of medicines in a pharmacy.

. Prices for drugs in this group sold in pharmacies: 37.7% have a retail price of less than 2.50 euros and more than half (56%) have a retail price of less than five euros.