In relation to the new drug reimbursement decree, some pharmaceutical companies began to lower their prices for drugs in order to fall into reimbursement categories. At the same time, pharmacists are no longer able to change a drug with the same active ingredient for a substitute (another pharmaceutical company) and there were decgressive margins at pharmacies introduced.
Our view: It was expected the large pharmaceutical companies will lower their prices in order to comply with the new decree. We continue to expect a short-term negative impact of the new reimbursement system increasing patients contributions on the whole market while generic produces, like Zentiva, shall benefit in the mid to long term.