Spain has made confidentiality of medicine financing agreements and net purchasing prices an explicit statutory rule, strengthening protection against public disclosure as international reference-pricing pressure grows.
Law 3/2026 of 29 July, published on 31 July, amends the Medicines Law from 1 August. Revised Article 97 states that financing agreements, information arising from them and award prices in public medicine-supply contracts are confidential. The previous provision protected economic information obtained during price setting, but courts and transparency bodies had disputed whether that extended to final prices and financing conditions.
The parliamentary justification explicitly linked the change to two risks: external reference-pricing policies, including the US Most Favoured Nation initiative, and litigation that could require disclosure of effective Spanish prices. It argued that disclosure could weaken Spain’s negotiating position and affect expenditure and access.
The legislation also increases central visibility of net purchasing data. Revised Article 106 requires autonomous communities to provide the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Sanidad, MS) and Ministry of Finance (Ministerio de Hacienda, MH), at least monthly, with consumption data and actual acquisition prices across pharmacy, hospital and other National Health System (Sistema Nacional de Salud, SNS) channels. The ministries will aggregate and clean the data before publication, while Article 97 requires product-level financing information and aggregate expenditure reporting.
Industry representatives supported stronger confidentiality, arguing that it helps Spain negotiate lower prices without encouraging launch delays. Civio Foundation (Fundación Civio, Civio) criticised the measure for extending secrecy to final public purchasing decisions and for pre-empting pending Supreme Court cases on medicine price information.
Spain is combining greater internal visibility of real acquisition prices with tighter external protection of product-level net terms. The explicit MFN rationale constitutes a clear example of European domestic legislation responding to the international pricing consequences of the US agenda.
Source: Official State Gazette
Link: Ley 3/2026, de 29 de julio, de modificación de normas sobre el programa de cribado neonatal del Sistema Nacional de Salud y de otra normativa (Law 3/2026 of 29 July amending rules on the National Health System neonatal screening programme and other legislation)
Date: 31 July 2026
Source: Congress of Deputies
Link: BOCG. Congreso de los Diputados, serie A, núm. 64-5, de 12/03/2026 (Official Gazette of the Congress of Deputies, Series A, no. 64-5, 12 March 2026)
Date: 12 March 2026
Source: Infobae
Link: España oculta para siempre cuánto le cuestan los medicamentos con una ley del cribado neonatal (Spain permanently hides how much medicines cost it through a neonatal screening law)
Date: 23 July 2026
