This is how well being expertise impacts the financial system… past well being | Economy | EUROtoday

There are challenges for human beings primarily based on fixed progress. For instance, these associated to well being and high quality of life: prevention, analysis, remedy and monitoring of illnesses evolve day by day due to well being applied sciences. Ensuring agile and equitable entry to technological innovation that improves the well being, high quality of life and well-being of the inhabitants is among the many precedence functions of the Spanish Federation of Health Technology Companies (Fenin). It represents corporations, producers, importers and distributors of well being merchandise. With 300 related corporations, its dedication to well being additionally has a direct affect on the nationwide financial system.

Every euro utilized by this trade in its exercise generates a further 1.27 euros for the nation. The normal secretary of Fenin, Pablo Crespo, displays on the affect of the sector: “If it did not exist, not only would healthcare activity be paralyzed, but the country’s economy would suffer a negative impact of 11.6 billion euros.” Breaking down this determine, the Health Technology trade generates a direct added worth of 5.1 billion euros and 6.5 billion oblique values. This means, in line with Fenin, that the sector contributes a turnover equal to 1.13% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Its potential is fostered by elements equivalent to funding and the excessive employability seen in corporations.

The sector maintains this optimistic affect regardless of working in a sophisticated productive and financial context: provide disaster, inflationary interval, tariff threats… Crespo offers for instance the consequences of the deindexation of public contracts for the acquisition of well being expertise. Since the non-public sector can’t replace the evolution of its prices through the lifetime of the contracts, it’s the corporations which can be assuming the collected inflation. In latest years, it has exceeded 20%.

Fenin is dedicated to recovering the indexation of public contracts and its hyperlink to the annual evolution of the CPI (mannequin in power till 2015) to facilitate a aggressive setting that permits better participation of corporations in these procedures, and ensures economic-financial steadiness all through the period of the settlement. The profit just isn’t just for the viability and competitiveness of corporations, because it additionally ensures the entry of pros and sufferers to high quality well being applied sciences.

On the opposite hand, they take into account that the present dedication to cost as the primary criterion in these contests solely generates short-term outcomes. Instead, specializing in value-based public procurement procedures for well being expertise means higher well being, and in addition financial, outcomes within the medium and long run. For this motive, Fenin emphasizes the necessity to promote the draft Law on Medicines and Health Products that limits the financial standards in public tenders for the acquisition of Health Technology to twenty%, to prioritize high quality over worth. The goal is to make sure higher care, innovation and effectivity of the well being system.

All these obstacles, added collectively, translate into financial losses. “One in five companies in our sector presented negative results in 2023,” explains Crespo. Even so, he factors out that the trade has maintained its dedication and has continued to take a position 264 million yearly in R&D&I in Spain. An implication additionally replicated within the employability of the sector. “It has maintained 54,000 direct jobs, 96% of them permanent, 46% of female employment and 3% of people with disabilities. And it doubles the annual investment per employee with respect to the average of the rest of the industrial sectors in our country,” he factors out.

To perceive how well being expertise impacts the nation, we should take note of who constitutes the sector and the way it operates. It is made up of 933 corporations that generate a complete turnover of 17,000 million euros (12,000 million nationally, to that are added almost 5,000 million in exports). Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) make up 92% of the enterprise cloth, contribute 66% of employment and 42% of gross sales quantity. Madrid and Catalonia are the communities with the best presence: near 64% of the overall corporations within the sector and 82% of the turnover are situated there.

Regarding commerce relations, the sector demonstrates sturdy export exercise of just about 5,000 million euros in 2024, though its steadiness is damaging: extra applied sciences and merchandise are imported than are exported. Europe is the primary vacation spot for Spanish well being expertise exports with 65%. They are adopted by North America, with 14%; Asia, with 9%, and Latin America, with 7%.

Fenin’s social dedication is decisive. According to calculations by the federation, the typical annual funding per worker is 60,000 euros, virtually double the typical for the commerce sector. In addition, these corporations make a direct annual funding in Spain of 264 million euros in R&D&i. And it’s the second sector in Spain for patent purposes, with 163 in 2024 (a rise of 14.0% in comparison with 2023).

Crespo explains that his dedication is to deliver the perfect well being expertise to the system, to learn sufferers and firms: “We have achieved this impact on the Spanish economy, forming a sector based on innovation and talent. We invest to be at the forefront.” And additionally, and above all, to avoid wasting and enhance lives.