MADRID, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Delays in government payments for medicines and a planned further round of price cuts threaten jobs in Spain's pharmaceutical sector, according to industry officials.
Both drugmakers and pharmacies are hurting from the latest austerity moves, prompting drugstores in one region to shut for a day in protest.
Spain is targeting the drugs bill again as it tries to slash its budget deficit. The new curbs add to an earlier round of cuts in 2010, which were mirrored across much of Europe, including Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Britain.
"We'll have to make the needed adjustments, perhaps not marketing some medicines, and very probably laying people off," said an executive at one major international drugmaker in Spain.
Up to 85 percent of the 1,300 pharmacies in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, south of Madrid, were closed on Thursday to protest about the 130 million euros ($184 million) in payments owed by the government, said Dolores Espinosa, president of a regional pharmacy industry group.
Pharmacies' profit margins on drugs are fixed by law, so they have little room for manoeuvre when payments are delayed.
