Hungarian Health Minister Lajos Molnár said prices of subsidized drugs are expected to fall on average by 5% from 1 April on the back of revision of reference prices in Hungary.
Our view: We see the news as neutral, as we believe the market and ourselves have already factored-in the price pressure arising from regulatory changes in the Hungarian drug market. However, a correction to our forecasts could come later this year as we gain more evidence from the quarterly company releases and market statistics over how much drug makers were willing to underbid each other.
The drug price competition is fuelled by more frequent revision of drug reimbursement lists (quarterly vs earlier semi-annual), lowered market share limit for reference drugs and minimum discount required to original product price when introducing new generic drugs.