A brief introduction to the Portuguese Health sector and the Health Cluster Portugal.

1. 1/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
PORTUGAL: THE RIGHT PLACE TO INVEST AND BUILD PARTNERSHIPS IN HEALTH
 The Health sector is a prominent, fast-evolving sector in Portugal, which has
experienced a remarkable evolution during the last couple of decades.
‘Made in Portugal’ means quality, reliability and competitiveness. Portuguese companies
are internationally recognised as high-quality suppliers of healthcare products and services
– e.g., pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other medical technologies –, having high standards
of quality and being capable of developing, manufacturing and supplying a wide range of solutions,
with high flexibility. A consistent offer also exists in the country in terms of contract development
and manufacturing organisations, and producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
The Portuguese pharmaceutical and medical device industries have grown above the country’s
average in recent years, with increasing exports to countries such as the USA, Germany, UK, Spain
and France. The Portuguese exports of goods from the health sector have grown by 123%
between 2008 and 2017, to a value of EUR 1,398 million. This includes the export of
pharmaceutical preparations (1,002 million), basic pharmaceutical products (93 million), medical
and dental instruments and supplies (289 million), and irradiation, electromedical and
electrotherapeutic equipment (14 million), not including sales of eHealth solutions and services.
Portugal has a vibrant and innovative Research & Development ecosystem, characterized by
the presence of world-class institutions and scientists – international panels of experts have
classified 13 out of 24 Portuguese Life and Health Sciences R&D Units as Exceptional, Excellent
or Very Good. The Portuguese scientific production in the areas of medical and health
sciences (includes clinical medicine, basic medicine, and health sciences), life sciences and
medical engineering has grown by 89% between 2008 and 2015, to a value of 8,096
publications – 38% of the entire scientific production of the country.
On the basis of this success is a high-quality education system, which every year graduates
thousands of well-prepared professionals in areas such as medicine, nursing, therapy and
rehabilitation, diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, biomedical sciences and pharmaceutical
sciences, to mention a few. More than 600 of these new graduations each year correspond to
new doctorates in the areas of life, medical and health sciences, and medical engineering.
Portugal also has a high-quality healthcare system, with excellent professionals and modernly
equipped. This quality is regularly assessed by an independent national regulatory organisation,
and there is a growing number of hospitals achieving international accreditation. And the ultimate
evidence of the quality of the Portuguese healthcare system consists on the country’s high-
standard health indicators – Portugal has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world,
and is in the front group of countries with the highest life expectancy at birth.
Besides its quality, which comes side-by-side with safety and innovation, the Portuguese offer in
healthcare is also cost-competitive in several market segments. If taken together with factors such
as the country’s geographic location, its climate, its tourism, culture and leisure offer, and the
hospitality of the people, for example, these characteristics make Portugal a perfect destination
for medical tourism. This reality comprises both a public and a private component that
complement and articulate with each other, thereby making available a highly qualified and
differentiated offer.

2. 2/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
Given the quality of Portuguese R&D institutions and hospitals, including the expertise of its human
resources and the high-end facilities, the country is very well positioned to be a competitive
supplier of specialised scientific/technological/analytical services, as well as an attractive
destination for conducting clinical trials. The number of clinical trial applications submitted to
the national competent authority has increased by 56% between 2011 and 2017.
As a result of the quality of the Portuguese health value chain, together with the attractiveness of
the investment climate in the country, well-known multinational companies have chosen
Portugal to establish production units and/or R&D centres.
 Selected indicators of the Health sector in Portugal
Indicator
(Unit)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Source
Turnover
(thousand
million €)
- 26.5 28.1 28.7 26.2 25.4 25.1 25.9 27.0 - -
Exports of
goods
(million €)
- 627 704 702 939 1,011 1,045 1,168 1,215 1,417 1,398
R&D
investment
(million €)
165 291 365 409 365 340 325 377 400 401 462
R&D
investment -
Companies
(million €)
59 100 88 103 116 114 112 120 109 108 136
Workers in
R&D activities
(FTE)
2,987 5,574 5,625 5,348 5,894 5,690 5,194 5,230 5,589 6,063 -
Researchers
(FTE) 2,575 5,063 4,841 4,787 5,562 5,268 4,369 4,421 4,755 5,093 -
Publications
(no.) 3,605 4,284 5,054 5,790 6,120 6,889 7,774 7,989 8,096 - -
PhD
graduations
(no.)
333 361 351 415 450 534 610 - - - -
Patent
applications:
European +
PCT
(no.)
15 11 17 18 21 21 39 - - - -
Clinical trials
authorisation
applications
(no.)
136 146 116 107 88 118 114 127 137 142 137
Life
expectancy
at birth
(years)
78.7 78.9 79.3 79.6 79.8 80.0 80.2 80.4 80.6 - -
Infant
mortality rate
(‰)
3.4 3.3 3.6 2.5 3.1 3.4 2.9 2.9 2.9 3.2 2.6
Source: HCP’s Tableau de Bord (http://healthportugal.com/about-us/tableau-de-bord).

3. 3/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
Health Cluster Portugal (HCP)
The Health Cluster Portugal (HCP) (www.healthportugal.com) is a private non-profit association,
founded in 2008, that currently brings together over 170 members, including R&D institutions,
universities, hospitals, organisations from civil society, and companies in the areas of
pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technologies, and services. Together, HCP and its
members develop innovative projects in areas such as translational and clinical research, active
and healthy ageing, health tourism, and eHealth, with the purpose of turning knowledge into new
solutions that contribute to the improvement of human health and wellbeing, and work to make
Portugal the right place to invest and build partnerships in Health.
To learn more about HCP members, please visit www.healthportugal-directory.com

4. 4/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
 Mission
HCP assumes as its mission to strengthen the competitiveness of Portugal in the research, design,
development, manufacturing and commercialization of health-related products and services, in
selected market and technological niches, targeting the most demanding and relevant international
markets, based on the recognition of its excellence, technological level and competences in the
field of innovation.
 Strategic Vision 2020
 HCP’s Subclusters
Under a logic of smart specialisation, HCP has an ongoing process of implementing the so-called
Subclusters, which are defined as groups of institutions, based in Portugal, with capacities – at
the scientific, clinical, industrial and commercial levels – oriented towards a specific “market” within
the Health area, and organized in order to create and exploit synergies between them. At the
present time, initiatives are under way in the areas of Cancer, Neurosciences, Ophthalmology,
and Medical Tourism.
Science, Technology
& Innovation
. diseases
. pharmaceutical & biotechnology
. medical technologies
. nanotechnologies
. clinical and translational research
Business dynamics
. healthcare
. pharmaceutical & biotechnology
. medical devices
. auxiliary diagnostic means
. eHealth
People
. qualified human resources
. scientific societies
. patient associations
Public support / New agendas
. smart specialisation
. reindustrialisation
. Portugal 2020 + Horizon 2020
. incentives to investment,innovation & employment
. attraction of foreign investment
+ social and economic development
+ turnover
+ exports
+ employment (qualified)
+ health
STRATEGIC OPTIONS
 well-being / active ageing
 preventive, personalised and participative medicine
(diseases – neurodegenerative, cancer,
cardiovascular, degenerative osteoarticular,
inflammatory, infectious, metabolic)
 health tourism
 eHealth

5. 5/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
 HCP Membership Directory
The HCP Membership Directory, which is available at www.healthportugal-directory.com, is a
guide of organisations operating in the Portuguese health value chain, including universities, R&D
institutions, hospitals and companies in the areas of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical
devices, ICT and services. Visitors can use it to access to information about HCP members and
find scientific, clinical, technological, industrial or commercial partners.
 SciPort | Health in Portugal: Science and Technology Resources Database
SciPort is an open-access, user-friendly database, managed by HCP and available at
www.scienceportugal.com, that includes information about Portuguese Institutions, R&D Projects
and Service Centres in the domain of Health. Thereby, global stakeholders – for example,
researchers and companies from all over the world – are offered a “one-stop-shop” where they can
freely and easily search for scientific/technological and business partners in Portugal.
 HCP@LinkedIn
HCP maintains a dynamic presence on LinkedIn, and the networking group “Health Cluster
Portugal” () is a privileged meeting point for 2,000 agents of the Health sector. Its subgroups
“HCP: I&D em Saúde | Health R&D” (), “HCP: Valorização do Conhecimento | Knowledge
Valorization” (), and “HCP: Potencial Humano | Human Potential” () are also integrated by
several hundred participants that rely on them for accessing the latest information and insights on
the Health sector – e.g., news, events, studies and reports, funding opportunities, partner searches,
technology offers, job opportunities, and training courses.

6. 6/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
 TRIS-HCP
The Translational and Clinical Research Infrastructures Specialisation Platform – Health
Cluster Portugal (TRIS-HCP) (http://healthportugal.com/tris-hcp) is a virtual organisational system
within HCP that brings together many of the most prominent Portuguese R&D institutions, hospitals
and academic medical centres, and their respective facilities, resources, services and expertise in
the areas of translational and clinical research, making them more accessible to other (national or
foreign) researchers and companies. TRIS-HCP is integrated in the Portuguese Roadmap of
Research Infrastructures 2014-2020 (), established by the Portuguese Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT).
TRIS-HCP can assist (external) researchers and companies in finding the right partners for their
R&D projects, since it brings together, through its members (view list of members at
http://healthportugal.com/tris-hcp/members-mission), a wide range of resources and expertise,
mainly in the following specialisation areas:
i) Diseases – cancer, cardiovascular, infectious, metabolic, neurological, rare.
ii) Products – advanced therapy medicinal products and biologics, biomarkers, imaging and tracing,
small molecules, vaccines.

7. 7/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
 Project AAL4ALL – Ambient Assisted Living for All
The project AAL4ALL (www.aal4all.org) aimed at the development of an ecosystem of products
and services for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) associated to a business model and validated
through large scale trial.
 Project Do IT – Development and Operation of Translational Research
The project Do IT (http://doit.com.pt/) aimed at the creation within the Portuguese health value
chain of a series of “translational research ecosystems”, based on strong and functional
partnerships between companies, R&D centres, universities and hospitals, in order to foster an
effective transfer, valorisation and exploitation of results generated by R&D activities, including the
development of innovative and competitive products and services for the global health market.
 Project HealthGainPT
The project HealthGainPT aims at developing a national multimodal digital platform for data
recording of well characterized individuals, representative of the Portuguese population, for
retrospective and prospective studies/research.
CO-PROMOTERS&PARTNERS
OBSERVERS

8. 8/8HCP | January 2019 | www.healthportugal.com
 Project MedTech-2-Market – MedTech made in Portugal
The project MedTech-2-Market aims at: i) development of medical technologies and eHealth
products/services – wearables, apps, serious games, CAD-as-a-service, POC analysis, technical
furniture and bedding, packaging and dispensing; ii) development and implementation of patient
monitoring and management systems in hospital and non-hospital environments; iii) creation of a
national interoperable platform; iv) definition and implementation of testbeds in Portugal; v)
definition of systems/models for procurement and assessment of health technologies; vi) actions
for raising the awareness and increasing the acceptance about eHealth amongst users, healthcare
units and health tourism providers; vii) internationalization actions.
 Regular initiatives
HCP regularly promotes initiatives in order to inform, to raise the awareness, and to promote the
discussion around themes relevant to the Health sector, as well as actions of networking and
promotion of its members and the Portuguese Health sector. Information about HCP’s past
initiatives, which have been attended by over 7,500 participants, is available at
http://healthportugal.com/about-us/regular-initiatives.
For more information about HCP, its projects and its activities, please visit www.healthportugal.com
and HCP’s LinkedIn® profile at www.linkedin.com/company/health-cluster-portugal.
OBSERVERS
MENTORS
CO-PROMOTERS&PARTNERS