Lisbon, March 20, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's government and the pharmaceutical industry's representative body on Thursday signed an agreement that they said aims to contribute to the sustainability of the country's National Health Service (SNS), guaranteeing a response to situations of medicine shortages while capping spending.
The agreement, which was signed at the Ministry of Health, will make it possible to ensure better control of public spending on pharmaceuticals by "setting a maximum growth ceiling of 7% on spending on medicines."
It will also guarantee access to medicines in a sustainable way, ensuring a response to situations where medicines are in short supply, known as stock-outs.
Present at the signing of the agreement were the minister of finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, the minister of economy, Pedro Reis, the minister of health, Ana Paula Martins, and the president of the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Industry Association (Apifarma), João Almeida Lopes.
The agreement is "innovative and audacious," Martins said. "It seeks to introduce various new mechanisms, some totally unprecedented, with the clear aim of allowing better control of public spending on medicines, by setting a maximum growth ceiling of 7% on spending on medicines."
She said that the agreement will make it possible to boost "new incentives for strategic investment in Portugal, which will make it possible to extend deductions to investments in manufacturing investment, research and development and the contracting of national production, directly boosting the economy.
"It guarantees... the minimisation of the risk of what we call a lack of supply of medicines in Portugal and this is of extraordinary importance today and in the near future, for various reasons, including geopolitical ones," she explained.
The minister of health emphasised that the pharmaceutical industry "has always been one of the pillars of public health in Portugal" - stressing that the "companies associated with Apifarma have demonstrated an unwavering commitment, in the best of times and in the worst of times, to improving the lives of the Portuguese."
From an economic point of view, the economy minister, Pedro Reis, said that "this is how we break new ground in densifying clusters that are increasingly strategic.
"In strategic terms, this sector is worthwhile because of its impact on innovation, research and development, qualification, the aggregation of the entire value chain, which, by the way, has a very important impact on our diplomacy of cooperation with third markets and, in particular, with the CPLP," he said, referring to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
Reis highlighted the strengthening of Portuguese companies, "with the development of new production units and new drugs, start-ups in the sector, technology centres, and even clinical analysis and data materiality segments."
The minister of finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, explained that the government wants to provide a service that guarantees the Portuguese "access to the healthcare they need at every moment.
"There are a number of other instruments that are included in this agreement today and that allow us to boost and leverage investments in the sector, both national and foreign direct investment," he said.
The president of Apifarma, João Almeida Lopes, said that the agreement reflected "a strategic vision" different from that of the past, adding that it was "important to be able to envisage a balanced tool, but one that looks to the future."
JML/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
