Spain and Portugal have reached an agreement to centralised the purchases of drugs to improve their healthcare delivery systems.
Spain's Health Minister, Dolors Montserrat, and his Portuguese counterpart, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, have agreed to reinforce the collaboration of both countries in the health field, which "will benefit 60 million people."
To work out how the two different drug purchasing systems can be melded, technicians from both countries will select a drug as a test and evaluate the results. This could happen by the end of the year.
With the resulting data, protocols can be established to coordinate the two medicine purchasing systems for future purchases. The drugs may end up being cheaper to buy, but this is not the sole objective as both ministers want to ensure "that no citizen is left behind in the access to innovative medicines and sustainability of the system."
Another of the points agreed in the landmark meeting falls in the environmental, entomological, epidemiological and research fields with the two countries keen to be better prepared in the face of any emerging or spreading disease.
The two ministries will work to identify risky border areas and to monitor environmental indicators, such as climate change or the existence of marshes, which are habitats that breed mosquitoes and ticks which spread many diseases.
Healthcare technicians will share common surveillance and data methods for the early detection of mosquitoes and will take joint measures to reduce and control populations in border areas.
