Having largely recovered from the impact of the global financial crisis and with several impressive fundamentals in place, Spain once again stands as one of Europe’s premier healthcare and life science investment destinations.
These fundamentals include a revamped market access process that puts the Iberian nation on a par with France and Germany, a high-quality yet affordable manufacturing base that has already attracted big-ticket industrial investments from the likes of Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Bayer, and a budding reputation as one of the best clinical trials destinations on the continent. Therefore, Spain, the world’s tenth largest pharma market, can truly be said to be maturing with grace.
Added to this, the Spanish can boast an advanced healthcare system, increasingly embracing innovative digital solutions and ranked the seventh best on the planet by the WHO. This, in turn, is helping Spaniards to live longer and Spain ranks second in Europe for life expectancy and fourth globally, with people in Madrid living longer than anywhere else in Europe!
However, that is not to say that Spain is an easy market to navigate. A highly fragmented and decentralized healthcare system creates inconsistent market access timeframes across the nation, with companies having to negotiate with individual regions and hospitals. Furthermore, considerable pricing pressures abound, hitting the country’s generics segment particularly hard.
Other topics touched on in this report include Spain’s booming biotech scene, the internationalization efforts of the country’s well-established mid-cap firms, a private healthcare market growing in both size and importance, and the nation’s expertise in oncology.
