The achievement of the biotech Hipra, the Catalan multinational based in Amer that has received the endorsement of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the first Spanish vaccine against covid has served the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to defend his health policy and in the field of research and development. During his visit to the company's facilities, the Chief Executive stressed the need for governments to influence strengthening public health, science and providing strategic autonomy to the industrial sector, in the face of cut policies that, although He did not say it, he attributes it to the PP.
"Excited" by the company's achievement and after making an "emotional" and "symbolic" visit, Sánchez referred to the "traumatic" experience caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which is now followed by the war in Ukraine, which In his opinion, "they leave lessons that we should not forget." Among them, that "weaken public health is the worst decision of any ruler because the bill ends up being paid."
Far from using the moment to attack the policies of his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, in his fight against the financial crisis of 2008, Sánchez put the accent on the management of his Government after taking over from the PP of Moncloa and facing the pandemic crisis : "We have more toilets than ever, with a strategic reserve, better equipment and public health that must be strengthened", he pointed out.
The second lesson that the president draws from the pandemic is the need for Spain to provide itself with "strategic autonomy" in the face of the lack of products that it is forced to import. In the case of the pandemic, the masks and respirators made it evident, but now, the president boasts of being able to count on the help of European funds and a "medium and long-term vision" for "industrial restructuring" from the country.
Sánchez mentioned areas such as agribusiness and semiconductors as possible beneficiaries of this aid for an objective without which Europe will be "more vulnerable to future crises."
And finally, the president once again charged against the austerity policies that caused science in Spain to be deeply harmed. "A country without science is a country without a future," he said, and in the case of Spain, "the cuts opened a huge gap with the countries around us." Faced with these cuts, Sánchez considered his government's investment in this sector "an act of justice", so that "researchers -Spanish- never have to look abroad for what they cannot find in our country."
The president valued the recovery of this sector in Spain with a piece of data, that of affiliation to scientific activities, which in one year "has risen 9%," he said.
For Sánchez, "this is the way to go", and the pandemic is full of "successful examples that help tell a story of a country that grows in the face of adversity", he has claimed. At this point, she mentioned the high vaccination rate in Spain, well above the rest of the European countries, and the European dimension with which problems must be faced.
The dimension of the pharmaceutical Hipra, present in the four continents that in collaboration with the central Administration has made this vaccine possible, helped Sánchez to value public-private management and the European dimension of achievement. Thus, Hipra has signed a contract for 250 million doses of its vaccine with 14 European countries and Spain will buy 3.2 million doses of "excellent quality" due to their ease of storage, versatility and efficacy.
Renamed Bimervax, the vaccine was evaluated during the month of March until the EMA finally approved it. It was the seventh vaccine approved by this body and the first in Spain to fight the coronavirus.
According to the tests carried out, it is even more effective than Pfizer's against the omicron variant. The company's initial forecasts were to produce 400 million doses during 2022 and another 1,200 for this 2023 in which the solution for the immune response against the disease can already be administered.
