Czech/Slovak Firms "Must Look Abroad"

Japanese broker Nomura believes that the Czech and Slovak drug industries cannot depend on growth in their domestic markets and must seek markets abroad and consider new products, notes the CTK news agency's Business News. Both industries face increasing competition and only modest growth, it adds.

Nomura notes that Slovakofarma in the Slovak republic has lower costs than its competitors, while a fall in international lysine prices has not favored Biotika. Of the Czech firms, Galena is said to have the best long-term prospects, thanks to its partnership with US drug company Ivax.

Meantime, the directors of Czech health insurer Hornicka Zamestnanecka Zdravotni Pojistovna (HZZP) have decided to continue its insurance activities, notes Business News, and have invited the Ministries of Health and Finance to discuss its financial position. HZZP has reportedly been failing to pay bills from hospitals and health institutions, but has made this decision because financial problems revealed by a recent Finance Ministry audit (Marketletter September 25) have nothing to do with its insurance operations. The main cause has apparently been the flaws in the health care financing system, which is proved by the poor financial situation of most Czech health insurers.