By confirming Majadahonda as the seat of the State Network Consortium for the Development of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (Consorcio Estatal en Red para el Desarrollo de Medicamentos de Terapias Avanzadas, CERTERA) and Barcelona as its scientific base, the government is effectively placing regulatory‑facing governance alongside national research funders in Madrid, while concentrating day‑to‑day clinical and translational work in one of Spain’s most mature hospital‑based innovation clusters. This is not a new programme but a key implementation step in the Strategic Project for Cutting‑Edge Health (Proyecto Estratégico para la Recuperación y Transformación Económica para la Salud de Vanguardia, PERTE) on health, which has been deploying funds since 2022.
The decision ends months of inter‑regional competition and gives consortia partners a clear picture of where strategic decision‑making and scientific leadership will sit. For ongoing PERTE projects in cell and gene therapies, it reduces uncertainty over which nodes will coordinate trial pipelines, capacity‑building and future industrial links once exceptional recovery funding runs out.
The text makes clear that timing is tight. The government still needs to approve CERTERA’s statutes and multi‑year financing plan, but with the current PERTE framework due to close in 2026, the political priority is to convert one‑off grants into a stable platform that can support later‑stage development, scaling and potential technology transfer deals.
For companies and academic consortia, the choice of a split‑site model means future partnership discussions are likely to coalesce around these two hubs, rather than a more diffuse national network. That could streamline engagement and accelerate project selection, but also risks reinforcing territorial concentration of high‑value infrastructure and specialised expertise.
Source: Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes
Link: Orden PJC/37/2026, de 27 de enero, por la que se publica el Acuerdo del Consejo de Ministros de 27 de enero de 2026, por el que se determina la sede física del Consorcio Estatal en Red para el Desarrollo de Medicamentos de Terapias Avanzadas (Order PJC/37/2026 of 27 January publishing the Agreement of the Council of Ministers determining the physical seat of the State Network Consortium for the Development of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products)
Date: 28 January 2026