The National Health Fund Administration (OEP) seeks to lower its expenses by ordering Hungarian drug companies to lower the price of those medicines that are 20% more expensive then the cheapest drug within the same active ingredient group. The National Health Fund will otherwise cease the subsidy of these products. The measure is estimated to affect the pricing of more than 100 medicines.
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OEP is following a new, so-called fixed policy of subsidizing, where the rate of support is adjusted to the cheapest product in the given group of medicine and higher prices entail lower subsidies.
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We see the news as slightly negative to the Hungarian generic pharmas, given the increased pressure on pricing from the National Health Fund. However, we also believe that only a few products of Richter and Egis could be affected by the measure of the OEP given the two drug producer’s relatively low pricing.
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