The president of AELMHU, Beatriz Perales, participated in the event "Compass of European competitiveness and its impact on the Spanish healthcare ecosystem", organized by LEVIN Public Health Affairs.
The event brought together institutional representatives, experts and industry leaders to discuss the major challenges facing the national healthcare system, from competitiveness and sustainability to biopharmaceutical innovation.
The conference was inaugurated by Javier Padilla, Secretary of State for Health, who stressed the need to strengthen public-private collaboration and accelerate the strategic reforms of the National Health System. He was accompanied at the opening by Anna Armengol Torío, Economic Advisor of the European Commission Representation in Spain, who spoke about the Community's health objectives, and Ruth Pavón, Director General of Levin Public Health Affairs, who highlighted the role of public health within the framework of the European Green Pact and the forthcoming Draghi Report.
Discussion tables
Moderated by Rubén Moreno, the first round table "Competitiveness Compass: From the Green Deal to the Draghi Report" featured the voices of Iciar Sanz de Madrid (Farmaindustria); Fernando Arancón (El Orden Mundial); María Beatriz Piñeiro (Galaria - SERGAS) and Rosa María Romero (Equality Commission and representative of the Health Commission in the Senate), who highlighted the need for Europe to move towards strategic healthcare autonomy, without losing sight of equity and social sustainability, in line with the objectives of the European Green Pact and the recommendations of the Draghi Report.
Moderated by Eva Rodríguez (Agencia SINC), the second round table, "Mission Environmental Sustainability of the NHS", dealt with how to mitigate the environmental impact of the healthcare system. With this, Ana Bosch (Farmaindustria); Pedro Carrascal(POP); Héctor Tejero (Ministry of Health); Carmen Aláez (FENIN); Mila Jové (AFAQUIM); Jaume Pey (ANEFP) and Esmeralda Martos (Tesera) pointed out that public-private collaboration contributes to the creation of a more responsible healthcare value chain aligned with sustainability criteria, highlighting the active role of healthcare technology, industry and self-care in reducing the environmental impact.
The last round table, "Mission Competitiveness and Biopharmaceutical Innovation", moderated by Pilar Pérez Jiménez(El Mundo), focused the debate on the promotion of biopharmaceutical R&D in Spain, with special attention to orphan drugs, biosimilars and advanced therapies, with the participation of César Hernández (Director General of the Common Portfolio of Services of the National Health System and Pharmacy of the Ministry of Health); Javier Urzay (Farmaindustria); Ion Arocena (ASEBIO), Encarnación Cruz(BIOSIM); Elena Casaus(AESEG) and Lidia Martín(ANEFP), together with Beatriz Perales, president of AELMHU.
With this, Beatriz stressed that "the Pharmaceutical Industry Strategy is an opportunity to strengthen the innovation ecosystem and ensure agile and equitable access to treatments for rare and ultra-rare diseases. However, there are still specific barriers, such as low prevalence, diagnostic delays, patient recruitment, geographical dispersion or the lack of comparators, which pose an additional challenge for their promoters, the vast majority of whom come from the pharmaceutical industry".
From the Association, we thank the organizers for having us to participate in this event, as well as the speakers who have accompanied us in this enriching and necessary day in order to continue advancing in innovation.
