[Biomedical research and innovation and COVID-19 syndemic. SESPAS Report 2022]

To describe the response in research and innovation (R&I) against the COVID-19 syndemic at the national level, contextualized internationally.

Guided narrative review.

In the COVID-19 syndemic, pressure has been put on the scientific community in general, and the innovative biomedical community in particular, to provide solutions, especially biotechnological products. Most of the recommendations of expert panels are not oriented to a biotechnological response (which must also exist), but to governance, organizational, socio-economic measures, and support for public health infrastructures. There is a significant deficit in the inclusion of sex/gender perspective in COVID-19 R&I. The COVID-19 syndemic has offered a (wasted) opportunity to promote research and innovation from an epidemiological perspective against infectious outbreaks with the potential to provoke a crisis in public health, claiming leadership from epidemiology. It is necessary to assess whether the large investment in biomedical R&I aimed at personalized medicine can be efficiently integrated into public health providers in the face of health crises.

It is urgent to design a R&I strategy in Spain aligned with internationally available funds, but providing the country with maximum independence in order to face critical situations for public health.