Health Systems in Transition - Hungary - World Health Organization ...

Health systems in transition Hungary 145
5.6 Pharmaceutical care
The pharmaceutical industry, from production to marketing, distribution and
consumption, is comprehensively regulated in accordance with EU regulations
(see section 2.8.4 for more details). There are three groups of actors in the
supply chain of pharmaceuticals: producers, wholesalers and retailers. After
two major waves of privatization and liberalization over the past 20 years – the
first in the early 1990s and the second after 2006 – the pharmaceutical industry
was mostly privately owned as of April 2011, with only a small segment of the
supply chain in the public sector.
During the communist era, pharmaceutical companies were owned by
the state and supplied not just most of the domestic market, but exported to
countries of the former socialist bloc. In the early period of economic transition,
the market was liberalized and, by the end of 1996, all but one Hungarian
pharmaceutical company were privatized, with the state retaining a small share
(between 5% and 27%) in three other companies (Antalóczy, 1997). Since
then, state ownership has continued to decrease. In 2010 there were close to
200 producers in the market, which by and large can be classified into three
groups: (1) companies that have local manufacturing plants in Hungary and
typically produce generics; these companies are represented by the Hungarian
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association; (2) large international companies
that mainly produce original pharmaceuticals outside Hungary; these companies
are represented by the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Manufacturers,
which has 23 members; and (3) approximately 30 smaller manufacturers of
generics without local production. The market share of these three groups,
according to the pharmaceutical sub-budget of the HIF, is 23%, 58% and 12%,
respectively (Government of the Republic of Hungary, 2010b).
Since the majority of the wholesale and retail industries were privatized
in the 1990s, substantial market concentration has taken place. In 2010
three wholesalers covered around 90% of the pharmaceutical trade market:
Hungaropharma (between 35% and 40%), Phoenix (40%) and Teva (10%).
Another company, Euromedic Pharma, is a major partner of hospital pharmacies
(Government of the Republic of Hungary, 2010b). Hungaropharma is owned
by the three main Hungarian pharmaceutical manufacturers (Richter Gedeon,
Egis and Béres) and, to a small extent, by pharmacies.