The Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Sanidad, MS) has constituted the Pharmaceutical Industry Alliance (Alianza de la Industria Farmacéutica, AIF), a structured dialogue mechanism covering the state administration, autonomous communities, industry, healthcare professionals, patient organisations and civil society.
Minister of Health Mónica García chaired the constitutive meeting on 15 April 2026, together with Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla. The MS presents the AIF as part of Spain’s 2024–2028 pharmaceutical industry strategy and as a shift from earlier annual collaboration tools centred mainly on public expenditure control towards a multiannual model recognising the sector’s role in health policy and industrial strategy.
The AIF is intended to support discussion on the full medicines cycle, including access to innovation, equity between regions, financial sustainability and transparency in public decision-making. The ministry said the forum will promote collaboration between the state administration and autonomous communities, while giving industry, healthcare professionals and patient organisations a more stable route into the planning, evaluation and follow-up of pharmaceutical policy.
Industry participation was visible at the launch. Farmaindustria attended through its director general, Juan Yermo, and deputy director general, Javier Urzay. Other sector representatives included the Spanish Self-Care Association (Asociación para el Autocuidado de la Salud, ANEFP), whose director general Jaume Pey also attended.
The clearest direct industry-association response came from the Spanish Association of Orphan and Ultra-Orphan Drug Companies (Asociación Española de Laboratorios de Medicamentos Huérfanos y Ultrahuérfanos, AELMHU). AELMHU said it would use the forum to bring the perspective of companies specialising in orphan and ultra-orphan medicines and other rare-disease treatments into the policy discussion. It welcomed the AIF’s objectives of strengthening strategic autonomy, promoting biomedical innovation and ensuring equitable medicines access across Spain.
The new forum does not itself change pricing, reimbursement or health technology assessment arrangements. Its significance lies in the way Spain is placing access, innovation, industrial policy and expenditure control within a single standing dialogue structure. The practical value will depend on whether the AIF becomes a route for earlier policy alignment or remains mainly a consultative forum alongside formal decision-making processes.
Source: Ministry of Health
Link: Mónica García preside la constitución de la Alianza de la Industria Farmacéutica (Mónica García chairs the constitution of the Pharmaceutical Industry Alliance)
Date: 15 April 2026
Source: Spanish Association of Orphan and Ultra-Orphan Drug Companies
Link: AELMHU en la constitución de la Alianza de la Industria Farmacéutica (AELMHU in the constitution of the Pharmaceutical Industry Alliance)
Date: 15 April 2026
