Almirall and the UPF Barcelona School of Management create a chair for innovation in pharmaceutical policies

• The Almirall Chair for Innovation Management in Pharmaceutical Policies in the National Health System will be led by Professor Jaume Puig-Junoy, director of the Master of Health and Medicine Economy, and Professor Natalia Pascual Argenté

The UPF Barcelona School of Management and Almirall have announced the signing of an agreement for the creation of the Almirall Chair for Innovation Management in Pharmaceutical Policies in the National Health System (NHS), an initiative that will be led by the professor of the UPF-BSM, Jaume Puig Junoy, Director of the Master in Health Economy and the Medicine and will have the executive director of the professor Natalia Pascual.

The Chair aims to generate systematized knowledge about the policy and management of pharmaceutical innovations in the NHS, as well as the economic impact of the pharmaceutical sector and the organizational management of healthcare in Spain, as well as transfer reflections to different interest groups.

Martínez-Sierra: "The health economics and health management themes have always been priorities in our school and university. After covid-19, these areas are more important than ever. The creation of this Chair is a clear example of the significance of this priority".

This initiative will work to analyse the efficiency in managing innovations in SNS pharmaceutical policies and also seek to study and define aspects that promote better health results for patients in the primarily dermatological and/or cardiovascular areas. At the same time, it will form human capital and offer practices to students of different profiles.

The Director General of the UPF Barcelona School of Management, José M. Martínez-Sierra, has stressed that “the health economy and health management themes have always been priorities in our school and university. After covid-19, these areas are more important than ever. The creation of this Chair is a clear example of the significance of this priority. And what better to do with a sector leader like Almirall".

Ignasi Martí, Director of Institutional Relations and Market Access at Almirall España, has highlighted: “At Almirall we believe that initiatives like this are essential for our NHS to continue to advance and to be able to respond to future health challenges. The incorporation of differential and innovative pharmaceutical policies, which may arise from Chairs such as this, where shared experience and knowledge are shared, will contribute to better health quality in Spain and better health results for patients and our society".

Future plans

Puig Junoy, director of this initiative, has pointed out the importance of this Chair in the future of innovation policies in the NHS: 'The management of pharmaceutical policy innovations will in future be reoriented towards organisational innovations and services, with less focus on the isolated assessment of new medicines and more on the integral role of care within which the medicine is an important element along with the other care resources".

“A new medicine does not always represent an innovation for which it is worth paying from a social point of view, nor do all innovations represent the same social value. Methods that offer the general health economy and economic assessment in particular are already sufficiently developed to be applicable in decision-making processes on pharmaceutical policy”, added the professor.

Pascual: "Almirall is one of the most widely used pharmaceutical companies in our country and with a strong international presence that has always had the UPF-BSM as a reference in training in health and health management. This Chair assumes the consolidation of this collaboration".

Among the planned activities, the Chair will organize a Meeting of Health Management Experts in which the efficiency in managing innovations in pharmaceutical policies will be debated. It is expected that more than 200 attendees will be involved, between managers, pharmacists and clinicians who participate and make decisions on the management of pharmaceutical policy at macro, meso and micro scale of NHS.

The Chair will also commission a study on the economic impact of the pharmaceutical sector on Spain's GDP in order to establish a recognised economic method for calculating this impact and provide figures based on the best available evidence.

Natalia Pascual has stated: "Almirall is one of the most mobile pharmaceutical companies in our country and with a strong international presence that has always had the UPF Barcelona School of Management as a reference in training in health and health management. This Chair assumes the consolidation of this collaboration".