“Life expectancy in Spain is 83 years, but only 67 with quality of life,” according to the director of IAVI

The global director of operations of the International Vaccine Initiative AIDS (IAVI, for its acronym in English), Ana Cespedeshas pointed out that, although “life expectancy in Spain is 83 years, only 67 have a good quality of life“.

“Who wants to live 15 years with a poor quality of life? We need prevention to extend the years of healthy life. Spain dedicates 97% of the health budget to the treatment of diseases and only 3% to prevention,” declared Céspedes.

Among other things, the head of IAVI has criticized the waiting times to launch drugs on the market. “In USA, an approved medication It is sold the next day. In Spain it takes 1.7 yearsbut not only that, also only 50% of the approved medications arrive,” he assured. “Without prevention we are increasing the burden of disease, allocating our resources to preventable diseases. We must reduce these diseases to have more access to innovation,” he stated during his speech at the V Symposium of the Health Observatory of The Spanish and invest..

Céspedes has also influenced education in health, key to prevent diseases, since “in Spain there is 21% high cholesterol, 20% hypertension, 15% mental health problems, 12% low back pain, 8% diabetes, 8% osteoarthritis and 2% of COPD“All these diseases account for a large percentage of our disease burden and are preventable with five tools: physical exercise, mental exercise, healthy nutrition, sleep and healthy interpersonal relationships,” he said.

“It should be a priority of the Government. We are developing a vaccine against tuberculosis developed by a researcher from the University of SaragossaCarlos Martín, manufactured in Galicia and the Government of Spain is still not contributing. The German Government has given us money and Bill Gates and it is a great opportunity to put Spain in the world map of innovation“, he pointed out.

On the other hand, Céspedes has highlighted that, in AIDS vaccine research, non-profit associations can take it on because they have financing to which the pharmaceutical industry is not eligible. However, “they don’t have the resources that the industry pharmaceutical Yes, it has.” Therefore, “collaborating is essential for the advancement of innovation and for that innovation to be accessible throughout the world,” he noted.