Law 16/2021 of December 14 was published on December 15, which modifies Law 12/2013, of August 2, on measures to improve the functioning of the food chain. This new reform intends to respond to the continuous claims of farmers in the agricultural and food sector, taking advantage of the framework of the transposition of the Spanish legal system of Directive (EU) 2019/633 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of April 17, 2019, related to unfair business practices in relationships between companies in the agricultural and food supply chain.

As every year since the creation of the reference price system back in 2014, the Spanish Ministry of Health published the new Reference Price Order Order SND/1308/2021 (“Order”) on 29 November 2021. The reference price system consists of the annual revision of the maximum price at which medicinal products included in the National Health System portfolio are financed. Our team already analyzed the draft Order published on 14 July 2021, and the final text barely differs from the draft.

Last June, the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country delivered a decision with wide repercussion with regards to advertising of medicinal products by pharmaceutical companies. The decision ruled on an appeal filed by Farmaindustria (the Spanish trade association bringing together innovative pharmaceutical companies) against a regional Order regulating the advertising of pharmaceutical products through medical sales representatives in the context of the Basque Health System.

The Spanish Ministry of Health is working on a project for a new royal decree regulating medical devices following the adoption of a new framework at the European level through Regulation (EU) 2017/45 of the European Parliament and the Council of 5 April 2017 on medical devices.