Spanish pharma spend rise "acceptable":
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Spain's medical technology industry will cautiously welcome news that spending on pharmaceuticals rose annually by 7.9% in 2001, to E7.2 billion ($6.36 billion), according to provisional figures released by the health ministry. The government considers this to be within "acceptable" spending levels, reports El Pais, referring to its policy of limiting pharma spending to three points above GDP growth (including inflation), after the double-figure increases of recent years. A 7.5% rise in 2000, at E6.73 billion, was preceded by average annual growth of 12.9% over the previous 13 years. High spending by the pharma sector has traditionally been seen by the medical devices sector as impacting negatively on funding available to it.