PERTE for Vanguard Health: this is the involvement of the Carlos III Health Institute in its development
El Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) for Vanguard Health It is a Government initiative, led by the Ministries of Science and Innovation and of Health. Its objective is to transform the health sector in Spain, with a special role for precision medicine, with actions in which science, innovation and digitization go hand in hand to face and overcome health challenges and, ultimately, improve the health of people. people.
The Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), given its nature as a financing agent for biomedical and health science and as a public health research body, has a relevant and fundamental role in the development of PERTE in all its strategic objectives and transversal lines .
The PERTE planned a public and private sector investment of 1.469 million euros in the 2021-2023 period, a figure that will be even higher after the recent announcement that public investment will go from the 982 million euros initially planned to , at least, 1.500 million. The ISCIII currently manages 177 million euros for PERTE in the years 2021 and 2022, which represent 18% of the public contribution and 45% of the budget that the Ministry of Science and Innovation has associated with its activities.
With 70 million that the Institute is going to add to this initial budget, which in principle were not included for the PERTE, the investment of the ISCIII would be close to 250 million, to which new calls and financing derived from the General Budgets would have to be added. of the State of 2023 associated with PERTE. For the moment, the Institute has already executed 168 of its 177 million, which represents 95% execution, one of the highest percentages among all the agents that participate in PERTE.
La news of this global budget increase has been known at the last meeting of the Vanguard Health Alliance, coordinated by the Ministries of Science and Innovation and of Health. The Alliance brings together representatives of Public Administrations -among them the ISCIII-, scientific societies, and business and patient associations around PERTE. Its objective is to strengthen collaboration and coordination between public and private agents in the health sector to advance in the execution of PERTE, which is supported by European funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
What has the ISCIII already done in the PERTE?
The ISCIII, in addition to its research, training and service provision work, has entrusted PERTE with R+D+I financing work so that this science-based transformation of the health system can move from laboratories to the market and Finally, to the main objective: people and an improvement in their health through science.
The participation of the ISCIII in PERTE is mainly framed in two of its main objectives, Personalized Precision Medicine and Advanced Therapies and other innovative drugs, and in three of its transversal lines of work: Strengthen and develop the capacities of the National Health System; Collaboration and Coordination between the scientific and industrial fabric, and Strengthen and articulate new training programs between companies, the health system and biomedical R&D&I centers.
In addition, the Institute coordinates the Secretariat of the PERTE Interministerial Working Group, and has created a Technical Support and Follow-up Office. Among the tasks of this Office are to facilitate the promotion and follow-up of all actions and the schedule of PERTE; promote the inclusion and reinforcement of public-private collaboration in decision-making; serve as a link between the scientific community, society, public and private actors and the Administration; collaborate in the dissemination of the results achieved in the PERTE; collect and analyze the information from the indicators used by the different participating agents, and facilitate the work of the aforementioned inter-ministerial working group.
More specifically, the involvement of the ISCIII in the PERTE includes, in Objective 1 of the PERTE on Personalized Medicine, the Call for R+D+I projects in Precision Medicine, which between 2021 and 2022 adds up to a total financing of 111 million. Four projects are included in objective 2 of PERTE, on Advanced Therapies and other innovative drugs: the aforementioned ISCIII call for Independent Clinical Research, worth 15 million between 2021 and 2022; the ISCIII-CDTI Joint Call for Innovations in Precision Medicine and Advanced Therapies, for a total value of 55 million (10 contributed by the Institute); the creation and development of a State Consortium for Advanced Therapies, and scientific support to the CDTI for the creation of a Public Private Mercantile Company.
What else does the ISCIII plan to contribute?
The contribution of the ISCIII to PERTE for Vanguard Health is already estimated at 250 million euros, to which must be added what is consigned in the General State Budget for the year 2023.
Among the ISCIII forecasts to continue adding to the development of PERTE is the launch of a call for the Advanced Therapies Consortium. as already The Ministry of Science and Innovation has advanced, the objective is to advance research in advanced therapies with new options to develop drugs with high potential and high cost; the competitive call that will be launched by the ISCIII will have 45 million to select entities that will be part of the future State Consortium for Advanced Therapies, which will bear the name of CERTERA and which will work as a networked scientific infrastructure configured around centers throughout Spain. A presentation of this call is scheduled for next December 1, in which more information on its opening and development will be offered.
Thanks to this initiative, the connection between research groups with high capacities and their ability to access resources and means will be improved, promoting the development and production of advanced therapies in the preclinical phases and in the most initial clinical phases, facilitating subsequent developments on the way to possible commercialization.
Within the framework of the line of action already approved in the PERTE, on the creation of an R+D+I structure for advanced therapies with a network structure that allows the structuring of existing capacities throughout the State, they have committed of the ISCIII almost 14 million euros. This funding comes from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, through the 2021 AES call for the Advanced Therapies Network, one of the Institute's Health Results-Oriented Cooperative Research Networks (RICORS), and the implementation of the Advanced Therapies Center on the ISCIII Campus located in Majadahonda (Madrid).
Along with this new ISCIII call for the CERTERA Consortium, the Institute will incorporate into the total budget for its participation in PERTE other actions carried out this year, such as the call for Independent Clinical Research (ICI) of the Strategic Action in Health (AES) 2022 and the call for Equipment and Infrastructures, which add up to the additional 70 million euros mentioned above. All these actions will also be complemented by other ISCIII initiatives consigned to PERTE through the General State Budget for the year 2023.
The director of the ISCIII, Cristóbal Belda, points out that the Institute's involvement in the development of PERTE "means positioning our institution as a key organization and a benchmark for continuing to care for people and their health through science, and empowering of PERTE the cooperation between various scientific and health agents, placing the National Health System at the forefront of real and effective solutions for citizens”.